


mr. and mr. lee

by aquariusblues



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Lovers to enemies to lovers, M/M, Mr. and Mrs. Smith - Freeform, TBS_soonhoon, basically a mr and mrs smith au for the snhn nation, married soonhoon, shitty marriages filled with suppressed love, violence/guns/death but nothing too graphic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 06:43:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 40,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17637758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aquariusblues/pseuds/aquariusblues
Summary: All marriages are filled with secrets but some secrets are better off dead.





	mr. and mr. lee

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO!!! this is my the big screen soonhoon fest contribution!! way longer than i thought it would be but .. nobody is surprised~ because it's a mr and mrs smith au i took the liberty of making it .... quite true to the movie, i apologize for that but some quotes were super hard to resist this film was made for snhn and i've written 40k to prove it. 
> 
> i hope everyone enjoys ♡

“So,” the monotone voice of the marriage counselor prompts. “How long have you two been married?”

“Five years,” Soonyoung replies easily.

“Six,” Jihoon corrects and Soonyoung sighs, not saying anything else.

“And how has the marriage been?”

“Pleasant,” Soonyoung’s face sports a tight smile and Jihoon’s cold voice follows.

“Delightful.”

“On a scale from one to ten,” the counselor says then. “How happy are you as a couple?”  

“Eight,” Jihoon says immediately and Soonyoung looks over at him, surprised, and then back at the counselor.

“What kind of scale are we talking about here? Like is one horrible? Or is zero horrible? Is ten the idea of a perfect marriage? Or is ten what I expect from a perfect marriage?” He asks all in a row ignoring how Jihoon is gripping his chair in annoyance.

“Ten is perfect, I suppose,” the counselor says with a slight shrug. Soonyoung raises a brow.  _Very professional…_

“Alright, ask again then,” Soonyoung smiles sharply noticing the man’s forehead dip in a slight frown.

“How happy are you as a couple?”

“Eight,” Jihoon and Soonyoung say at the same time and the therapist nods, writing something down on his pad.

There’s a tension between Soonyoung and his husband. It’s not difficult to notice it. They sit on two armchairs not far apart enough to potentially reach out to take hold each other’s hands but they barely even make eye contact through the first forty minutes of this session.

They’re trying to save their marriage. That’s what Jihoon wants and Soonyoung just doesn’t want to feel a like stranger in his house anymore.

“And the sex?” The therapist asks.

“The sex?” Jihoon repeats dumbly.

“How is it? How often do you have it?”

Neither of them answer for the first few minutes, watching the therapist a bit awkwardly.

“Is this another scale question?” Soonyoung asks finally. “Is one not at all?”

“Well technically zero would be nothing at all,” Jihoon adds and Soonyoung nods, agreeing.

“Exactly. Or are we talking about the quality of the sex. Is ten an orgasm? Or several orgasms?”

“I meant an amount,” the counselor explains easily. “Let’s say this week.”

They’re both silent. “Including the weekends?” Soonyoung prompts.

“…Yes.”

Soonyoung opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again. He doesn’t know what to say. He can see Jihoon fidgeting in his chair from the corner of his eyes, neither of them saying anything. The reality is, they haven’t had sex in weeks… Months really. Soonyoung stopped counting how long it’s been. He just kind of accepted that it’s not happening anymore and he senses that Jihoon did the same.

The counselor looks at them from atop his glasses, writes something down, and clears his throat.

“Tell me how you met.”

“Kyoto,” Jihoon says easily, voice softer than earlier.

“Right,” Soonyoung nods, the memories of better, brighter times resurfacing. When they were in love. “Five years ago,” he says wistfully and after a pause, Jihoon corrects.

“Six.”

Soonyoung tries not to sigh too obviously.

Five or six years ago. Does it really matter these days when their entire marriage is so damn shitty?

They met in Kyoto, Japan. A Yakuza boss was on the loose in the city and Soonyoung got momentarily stuck in a feud between two families. It’s his luck, too, that he looks slightly Japanese at least until he starts speaking. His accent is easy to recognize as a foreigner’s.

He was swooshing a glass of whiskey at his hotel lobby when he first saw Jihoon. Two cubes in a drink three fingers tall. He always liked the pleasant spicy burn of Japanese whiskey. There was yelling and some distant shooting going on outside and the barman told him in broken English that one of the families is going to eradicate the other by evening if this doesn't stop. Soonyoung didn’t really particularly care about what would happen to the families, he just had to kill their boss.

“Oi!” He hears behind him and turns around to see two security men with their hands on their guns. It doesn’t matter which language they speak when they have ‘police’ written on their uniforms and tattoos sneaking out from their collars. Even a child can figure out that it isn’t the government that controls them.  

Soonyoung raises his hands because fighting against two men with guns isn’t a way to escape and tilts his head questioningly when they yell something in Japanese at him.

“Excuse me?” Soonyoung asks in English so the ‘police’ make sure to lower their guns. Despite their violent tendencies, the Yakuza don’t involve outsiders in their feuds. “Tourist,” he adds then, and smiles apologetically.

They repeat some Japanese chatter at him as they come closer and Soonyoung understands that they’re asking if he’s alone but showing them that he speaks fluent Japanese isn’t the best way to stay discrete in this type of sensitive situation. It helps that he’s in the lobby of his hotel too. Tourists aren’t a surprise here. From behind him the barman tries to defend him but the two men yell at him to shut up. One of them takes out his gun and Soonyoung calculates he has a few seconds to reach for his before this situation turns a little dirty when a man barges in through the bar door.

He’s short. That’s the first thing Soonyoung noticed. The second was that he’s beautiful. Soonyoung doesn’t know if it’s the way the early afternoon sun hits through the tall windows of the bar, or the way his black hair is fluffy on top and short on the sides or how his eyes pierce the room like he owns the place. If Soonyoung didn’t know better he’d think this man is a Yakuza boss himself.

The man has one hand in the pocket of his pantsuit while the other slides his sunglasses halfway down his nose looking around the lobby. With all the ruckus outside there aren’t many people there so their eyes meet quickly.

“Are you alone?” One of the yakuza soldiers yells at the man in Japanese and the man looks over at him with disinterest.

“Excuse me?” The man responds in English and Soonyoung can feel himself smirking, the ice cube of his drink rattling in his glass.

“Alone?!” Another soldier yells at him and the man glances over to Soonyoung, taking his time for half a second to consider Soonyoung despite two men with guns yelling at him.

“No,” he tells them and the next second the man is walking towards him, placing his sunglasses in the neckline of his casual shirt despite the blazer on top. Soonyoung is still smiling as he finishes his drink and places it on the bar behind him before welcoming the man with an arm slipping around his waist. When the man doesn’t refuse, Soonyoung’s smile widens.

“He’s with me,” Soonyoung tells the guards in Japanese but his eyes are on Jihoon, who is raising his brow in interest.

“Well then get out of here!” One of the men yells and if they are questioning the fact that Soonyoung can suddenly speak Japanese or the way the stranger’s hand runs suggestively on top of his arm they don’t mention it, shooing them away instead.

Soonyoung nods farewell at the two guards busy scanning the rest of the lobby and the guests at the bar and takes the short man’s hand leading them towards the elevator. They don’t speak until the elevator doors close and the man lets go of Soonyoung’s hand to fix the cuffs of his blazer.

“You’re not Japanese,” he says, speaking Japanese too and Soonyoung smiles.

“How could you tell?” He switches to English and the man looks at him sideways.

“You had an accent.”

“You could tell that from one line?”

The man smirks. “I have an ear for these things.” Soonyoung takes the pause to run his tongue along his bottom lip as he looks the man up and down. He’s short, sure, but his body is surreal and Soonyoung’s eyes linger on his thin ankles and the hint of a perky butt beneath the blazer. When the elevator dings Soonyoung’s gaze snaps up to his and he smiles sweetly when he finds the man watching him through narrowed eyes.

There’s a Yakuza guard knocking on doors in the hallway so Soonyoung swiftly takes hold of the man’s hand again and leads them discreetly to his room.

The guard notices them and tries to stop them but Soonyoung’s new friend mutters loudly in English, “Seriously… We’re just trying to spend some time in Kyoto what’s with all the ruckus.” The guard watches them for a moment, processing the foreign language, and lets them go when Soonyoung smiles innocently at him.

When they’re inside his room the man presses his ear against the door to make sure the guard isn’t following them while Soonyoung uses the spare minute to hide his gun in his duffel bag in the corner of the room. If things get interesting, he doesn’t feel like explaining why he carries a gun in the back of his pants. He already used the gun for what he needed anyways.

He sits on his bed when it’s put away and watches the man turn around and lean on the door, sharp eyes studying Soonyoung.

“I’m Jihoon Lee, by the way,” he says and Soonyoung tilts his head smiling.

“I’m Soonyoung. Soonyoung Kwon.”

“Nice to meet you Soonyoung,” Jihoon isn’t really smiling, but the corner of his lip is upturned slightly in a way that intrigues Soonyoung more than this whole mission to Kyoto did in the first place. “Korean?” Jihoon asks as he comes up to him and offers his hand and Soonyoung shakes it.

“Yes, fully,” he tells him, enjoying the way Jihoon’s eyes glance questioningly at the way Soonyoung’s fingers linger on his before he lets go. “Grew up in New York, though.”

“Hm, same,” Jihoon says eyes growing distant for a second. “Moved around a lot though, mostly East Coast.” Without adding anything else he heads for Soonyoung’s minibar and takes out a jar of peanuts. “You don’t mind do you?”

Soonyoung leans back, his palms settling on the mattress behind him. “Be my guest.”

They kill a couple of hours getting to know each other and eating every snack Soonyoung has in his minibar and Soonyoung knows Jihoon is just doing it to tease him but Jihoon also doesn’t know that Soonyoung will send the bill to his boss anyway and as long as the mission is complete, the company will take care of his expenses.

Soonyoung learns that Jihoon is a CEO of a music company he started with his best friend back in college. He’s in Kyoto to meet with some producers who want to collaborate with one of his soloists. Meanwhile Soonyoung shares his own typical cover story – businessman looking to buy a piece of land in Japan to expand their company.

A little after the sun sets, the phone rings. By that hour the bed is littered with wrappers and little whiskey bottles. Jihoon has shed his blazer as he lays down on Soonyoung’s pillows and Soonyoung tries hard not to get distracted by Jihoon’s small waist where his shirt is tucked into his pants, or the way he keeps biting his lip whenever he glances at Soonyoung’s mouth.

Soonyoung rolls over with a groan and answers the phone with a raspy, “Hello?”

“Kwon-san? We are so sorry for the earlier inconvenience, there has been suspicion of a terrorist attack so we wanted to secure the area,” the man on the phone tells him assuredly and Soonyoung tries not to roll his eyes. “We would like to offer you free dinner at the hotel’s expense as well as an extra night free of charge.” Soonyoung can’t help but raise his brow at that. He’s supposed to leave that evening but after glancing over to Jihoon who is reading the back of some potato chip bag he can’t help but think maybe this is meant to be.

“I’ll take the offer,” Soonyoung says simply.

“Would you like me to reserve a table.”

“Yes,” Soonyoung rolls on his back and watches Jihoon upside-down who tries to feed him a chip. “For two.”

They have a fancy dinner and go all out with the most expensive seafood plate and even more expensive wine with a few champagne glasses thrown in as well. Soonyoung learns that even though Jihoon has a gaze that could pierce an entire room, he’s actually quite… cute. He turns a little red from the alcohol and eats twice the amount Soonyoung does even though Soonyoung has always considered himself the ultimate foodie. The amount of rice Jihoon consumes, however, is almost concerning.

“Good food?”

“Delicious,” Jihoon grins atop of his wine glass and Soonyoung can’t help but stare at the sharp canines that show themselves when he smiles wide.

They take a walk around Kyoto after dinner. Kyoto post a family feud is quiet and beautiful as always and Soonyoung reaches bravely for Jihoon’s hand and Jihoon, in his tipsy blissful state, doesn’t refuse. They pass a street festival on the way, probably another smaller rival Yakuza family celebrating, and Jihoon tries to drag Soonyoung into the crowd but Soonyoung tightens his hold.

“You don’t want to dance?” Jihoon pouts and Soonyoung would’ve never expected to see that kind of expression on the man when he first saw him earlier that day.

“I don’t dance,” Soonyoung says automatically. A lie he maintains not to stand out but when Jihoon is looking at him like that he wants to throw all his covers aside and do whatever Jihoon asks of him. Before Soonyoung can change his mind, Jihoon simply shrugs and lets go of his hand joining the crowd on his own, taking his time there as he sheds off his blazer and looks over his shoulder at Soonyoung.

 _Damn it,_ Soonyoung thinks. His appreciation of Jihoon’s ass definitely didn’t go unnoticed. Soonyoung feels the wine from dinner do an uncomfortable flip in his stomach when Jihoon starts swaying his hips and it only takes about thirty seconds until Soonyoung gives up and joins him in the crowd, hands on Jihoon’s slim hips and mouths a breath apart.

“You move really… well,” Soonyoung whispers in his ear when Jihoon turns around his back against Soonyoung’s chest and ass way too close to Soonyoung’s groin. Jihoon smiles and hums in agreement leaning slightly back and Soonyoung thinks if Jihoon continues this way Soonyoung will get arrested for public exhibition rather than the fact that he killed one of the biggest Yakuza bosses of Japan.

There’s thunder above him and Jihoon uses the distraction to turn around again, his arms around Soonyoung’s neck and their noses brush once, twice, thrice, before the sky announces downpour and Jihoon closes the distance to kiss Soonyoung in the pouring rain.

They end up under cover eventually, slightly soaked, but Soonyoung really  _really_ doesn’t care when Jihoon sits on his lap and kisses him, mouth open and pliant and it might be thundering, raining, and the world might be ending around them but in that moment Soonyoung really doesn't care.

 

✗

 

Soonyoung wakes up in his hotel the next morning, naked and alone. He sits up slowly, looking around the room rubbing his eyes with his fingers to see it a bit clearer. It’s not hard to forget what happened the night before. He took care of his mission in the morning, met the most beautiful man in the afternoon, had a delicious dinner with him in the evening and a very intriguing night as well.

Except now he’s gone.

Soonyoung tries not to let it get to him. One night stands happen. Soonyoung isn’t one to hold back either when missions abroad feel lonely and he feels like meeting a stranger for the night. There was something about Jihoon, though, that made him feel almost attached…

He’s about to give up hoping when the door to his suit opens and Jihoon enters with a newspaper under his arm and his other hand balancing two iced coffees on top of each other. The relief that floods into Soonyoung is almost embarrassing.

“Hey stranger,” he tells him from the bed and Jihoon looks up at him and smiles.

“Good morning,” he comes up to bed throwing a newspaper on it and it takes Soonyoung a few seconds to read the title in Japanese,  _Yakuza double kill? Both families lose their boss in one night._

“So that’s the ruckus from last night, huh,” Soonyoung mutters, wondering briefly who took care of the other boss when his job was only one of them. He puts aside the newspaper before he thinks too much about it, more interested in the man in front of him.

“I guess,” Jihoon’s smile melts into a soft one and his tongue peaks out to run along his bottom lip. “I hope you like Americanos.”

“I like my drinks a little more on the sweeter side,” Soonyoung admits but reaches for the coffee anyway. “I know what could help, though,” he adds and when he leans forward for a kiss, Jihoon meets him halfway.  

 

✗

 

They keep in contact after that and they both live in New York so it’s not too hard. They go on dates almost every day and Soonyoung can safely say he’s never felt like this before.

He’s intrigued. He’s enamored. He feels like he hit jackpot. On one of their dates they go to a fair and Jihoon shoots down every target and calls it beginner’s luck. Soonyoung doesn’t know how much he believes that but Jihoon won a huge stuffed teddy bear for him and when he hands it over with a proud smile Soonyoung thinks it doesn’t really matter why he can shoot this well as long as he keeps smiling like that forever.

“I’m in love with him,” Soonyoung tells Jun during one of their martial arts practices. “He’s perfect,” he lists between punches on the beanbag. “I want to marry him. I want to spend my entire life with him. He’s the man of dreams. My soulmate.”

“Sounds really convincing when you’re beating the hell out of a bag,” Jun mumbles watching Soonyoung with one pretty brow raised as he lounges on the bench press on the side. “How long have you been dating?”

“Six weeks.”

“And you think you know you want to spend your entire life together after six weeks?” Jun asks incredulously.

“No,” Soonyoung punches the bag again. “I knew after two weeks.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“I’m in love!” He punctuates it with a strong kick.

“You don’t even know the guy! It hasn’t even been two months!”

“I know my feelings,” Soonyoung huffs, growing steadily exhausted. He’s always been better with the gun than his hands anyway. “He’s perfect, I’m telling you. He’s cute,” he starts listening punching the bag after every word. “Sweet, small, smart, sexy, spontaneous, complicated! I’m in love with him!” He finishes and stops punching to lean against the bag and breathe. “I want to marry him.”

“You’re ridiculous, this is too soon!” When Soonyoung doesn’t say anything, Jun sighs. “This is a mistake.”

“It really doesn’t feel like one,” Soonyoung wipes sweat off his forehead. “I’m going to ask him,” he decides and Jun mutters something under his breath that doesn’t sound too positive as he leans back on the bench press.

As it turns out a few days later they really do become engaged, except the one who proposed was Jihoon and just like that they became Mr. and Mr. Lee.

 

✗

 

Jihoon is fixing the curtains when he hears Soonyoung's car roll into the driveway and the dread that rolls in with it makes him feel only a little guilty. He’s balancing on the back of an armchair chair with both feet to tie in the last ring and lowers himself onto the cushion when Soonyoung’s key is twisting in the lock.

Soonyoung doesn't even say hi when he walks in. He used to, Jihoon thinks bitterly. They both used to do things for this relationship until they equally gave up. Jihoon hears the rattle of the keys dropping on the table by the entrance and the fumble of Soonyoung toeing off his shoes and tries not to wince at how sure he is that Soonyoung isn't placing them carefully together on the side.

"Hi, honey," he smiles tightly when Soonyoung walks into the living room, dropping his briefcase on an armchair.  _Stay calm, Jihoon_ , he tells himself but knows his smile is strained and he hates how Soonyoung won't even look at him. "How was work?"

"So so," Soonyoung replies off-handedly, heading over to the liquor cabinet and Jihoon tries not to cringe.

"I changed the curtains," Jihoon comments. "These are the ones your sister sent the other week," he adds when Soonyoung doesn't reply, more interested in pouring himself some post-work whiskey. "Well," he prompts. "What do you think?"

Soonyoung looks over his shoulder at Jihoon as if only hearing him then. "What?"

"The curtains... The ones your sister sent us..." Soonyoung just stares at him. "What do you think about them?" Jihoon tries to keep calm but he knows it isn't working too well with how his nails dig into his palms.

Finally, Soonyoung shrugs. "They're fine, I guess?"

Jihoon remembers one of his sessions with their shitty therapist: compromise. He tries it out. "If you don't like them we can take them off," he offers.

"Ok," Soonyoung takes a sip of his drink. "I don't like them."

They stare off for a few seconds. Soonyoung deadpan and Jihoon very aware that he's glaring. He jumps off the chair and walks past Soonyoung taking the drink out of his hand and finishing it clean before he puts the empty glass back into Soonyoung's palm.

"Well get used to them, honey," he smiles tightly and walks off to the kitchen hearing a soft "yeah" behind him.

He grabs the last of the mashed potatoes from the stove and takes it to the dining room where he sets up the last of the table. The alcohol burns pleasantly in his throat and doing these mindless arrangements helps him calm down. He thinks back on the solo session he had with the therapist that morning. It was last minute, he really just went there to complain.

"I want Soonyoung to be happy," he said honestly. "I want only good things for him, of course. But there are times..." He put his hands up in a strangling motion and squeezed tight ignoring how the therapist's brows flinched slightly.

That's when the therapist said, "Just compromise." Which was coincidentally the moment Jihoon realized that that entire session was a waste of a hundred dollars.

They sit in across from each other at dinner now. The word compromise plays over and over in Jihoon's mind but the way Soonyoung has filled his glass with slightly more whiskey than usual and the way he hasn't looked up at him even once is pissing him off too much to compromise on anything other than a sharp knife in between Soonyoung's fingers just to make him  _look_.

"You added chili," Soonyoung says after his first bite of the mashed potatoes, finally looking up. Okay, so maybe Jihoon wasn't on his best behavior. Soonyoung can't handle spicy food.

"I decided to spice it up a little," Jihoon grin is purposefully mischievous and Soonyoung’s eyes narrow as he takes a huge bite of the chili purée just to spite him. When his face turns red Jihoon hides his smile behind his glass of wine.

Soonyoung proceeds to swallow the bite whole and go through about three cups of water, wiping the sweat off his forehead as Jihoon leans back on his chair and pleasantly observes. Maybe handling their issues this way has a charm of its own.

"Joshua and Jeonghan invited us for drinks later, remember?" Jihoon mentions when Soonyoung looks like he can breathe properly again.

"Tonight? I can't tonight," Soonyoung's voice is hoarse from the spiciness but Jihoon is too annoyed to find it funny.

"I told you about it this morning, you said you'll come."

"Something came up."

"Well cancel it."

"I can't cancel it," Soonyoung says through gritted teeth and when he realizes Jihoon won't back down he lets out a sigh. "What time did they invite us for?"

"Ten."

"I'll be back on time," Soonyoung promises and despite all the hostility, Jihoon knows Soonyoung means it.

"Then I'll see you then," Jihoon says and watches Soonyoung leave the table. It's no surprise he left behind the plate.

 

✗

 

Joshua and Jeonghan… What does Soonyoung care to go see them? Being at home with Jihoon is torture enough, but going to their neighbor's house to pretend like their marriage isn't falling apart? He doesn't have time for that.

He heads to the bedroom to grab a larger coat and a hat that he slides under his arm and doesn't say goodbye when he leaves, ignoring that in the thirty minutes since he got home, Jihoon had already found time to carefully arrange his shoes by the doorway. Before going to his car he stops by the shed where there’s a trapdoor leading to his gun collection. He picks out a regular gun and silencer and looks around trying to think if he’ll need anything else. He has around sixty weapons here including guns, bombs, knives, one sharp katakana and even some ninja stars. They’re all his most prized possessions and sometimes he wishes Jihoon knew about his double life so he could display all this glory a little better.

Before he can start drooling on the floor, he leaves for his car and drives off to the city.

It's an easy mission. The location is a lair underneath a popular nightclub Rocket by the Brooklyn Bridge where a bunch of misfits play poker to spend the money they earn by selling illegal weapons. It's boring. It’s the fourth of that kind of mission in the last month alone, Soonyoung thinks a little bitterly, even the locations are becoming unoriginal. He still takes the job though, not for the money, but because he wants any type of distraction.  

He parks his car on the corner around the street from the club and puts on his hat on, tilting it forward. It’s a fedora Jihoon got for him from one of his business trips to Paris. The hat is a little lame, sure, but the tilt is useful and Soonyoung doesn’t like standing out in the crowd with his sharp eyes and chubby baby face cheeks even as he’s nearing thirty.  

It’s a Tuesday night so there’s no line and he’s let in quickly with a show of his ID. The room he needs is at the back of the club and he swiftly passes through the crowd to reach it, stopping at the bar on the way to order a glass of whiskey. From his spot on the bar he watches the back door and waits for someone to leave to swoop inside before the door closes again.

"Gentlemen," he says casually when he enters the room. "Poker is here, right?" He takes off his hat with his free hand. "Have room for one more?" He asks raising his glass and the three men around the table look at him in confusion.

"Who the fuck are you?" One of them asks, toothpick sticking out of his mouth like some stereotypical mafia man.

"Just wanna gamble some money," Soonyoung grins, he comes up to the table placing his hat on the edge of the empty chair and puts his hand swiftly into the inside of his coat pocket not missing how all three men instantly put their own hands onto their guns hidden under the table. He takes out a stack of money and throws it on the table. "Planning on testing my luck tonight," he explains taking a sip of his whiskey enjoying the wide eyes staring at his money stack.

The men look at each other for a silent minute then the same man with the toothpick nudges at the chair. "Take a seat, then, stranger," he smirks looking at Soonyoung like he's a child he can play with. Soonyoung doesn't really care, though. There's only one person leaving that room tonight, and for all he cares, Soonyoung can take all the money whether he wins it or not.

 

✗

 

Jihoon leans on the windowsill, watching Soonyoung's car leave the driveway. He could get some work done for his day job but he remembers Cheol's message from earlier and decides spending his time doing more... Exciting things.

 

to cheol: _what's the mission u needed_

 

Cheol replies almost immediately.

 

to jihoon:  _oooo mr lee !! look who's up to it after all :D_

to cheol: _just talk_

to jihoon:  _aight big boy_

 

The mission is at the Plaza Hotel in the middle of the city, Jihoon checks the time. He has about two hours before they need to be at their neighbor's and since it's at most a thirty-minute drive there and back, completing it should be no problem.

 

to jihoon: _by the way he thinks ure a prostitute LOL dress accordingly_

 

Jihoon grimaces at his phone screen.

 

to cheol: _u did this on purpose didn't you?_

to jihoon:  _i was worried since u havent gotten laid in like four months_

 

Jihoon's cringe deepens if that's even possible.

 

to cheol:  _im not abt to fuck a guy im supposed to kill_

to jihoon: _doesnt hurt to feel a little sexy tho_

to cheol:  _you're disgusting_

to jihoon:  _lmk how it goes! maybe keep the outfit on for tonight~ postmission sex is always the best ;)_

 

Jihoon sighs at his phone and pockets it. He has nothing else to say to that. It doesn't matter what he wears or how he acts or how high his adrenaline rush is. They don't even have sex when they're drunk anymore.

Still, Jihoon does reach into some deep part of his closet for the sultriest outfit he has. He hasn't used it in years since he isn't one to go on missions like this and Soonyoung isn’t as spunky as he used to be back when they actually looked at each other for more than three seconds.

It's tight leather underwear and fishnet stockings that Jihoon has to admit they look pretty ridiculously good on him. He pairs them with big boots and some weird S&M harness Soonyoung bought for their three-year anniversary and puts a big coat on top that reaches his shoes to make him a little more presentable for the few minutes he'll be in public. Before he leaves he darkens his eyes a little with an old eye shadow palette and looks at himself in the mirror for a short moment.

He looks nice. He looks like he used to when he and Soonyoung were at the peak of their relationship. When they went out together to clubs, pulled weird roleplay in bed, spent each evening together that Jihoon had absolutely no desire to take missions like this and humiliate himself.

He misses it. He misses feeling sexy and loved. Most of all he misses Soonyoung.

Jihoon tears his eyes away from the mirror and heads to his car hands itching for the cigarettes he keeps in his glove box. By the time he reaches the hotel he's gone through three cigarettes and he's not proud of it but it's only way he can keep his hands from shaking like they do every time he realizes his marriage with Soonyoung probably won't last much longer.

The valet parks his car for him while Jihoon walks through the lobby, straight to the penthouse because strangely he's had missions here before and he’s used to the place. Maybe staying at the Plaza is a bad guy thing. Jihoon doesn't really care. He wants another cigarette.

When he reaches the top floor he texts Seungcheol his location with the time he thinks his mission is going to take. If he doesn't text back within that time Seungcheol can resort to sending backup, that's how their missions usually work and Jihoon gives himself an hour for this one. Even that's too much, he's not actually planning on fucking the guy. He's pretty sure having sex with a person he's about to kill is borderline necrophilia and he's too disgusted to think much more about that.

He knocks on the door and leans on the frame letting one of his legs slip past the jacket so that whoever opens it doesn't have to think too much about who Jihoon might be. It works because the man who lets him in simply smirks at him and Jihoon is glad he didn't slap his ass from the way he stared at his body because Jihoon is afraid he'd have to cut this mission short and just kill everyone in the room that very second.

 _Be strong, Jihoon_ , he tells himself. He only needs to kill the boss.

"Wow," the target smirks when Jihoon is inside the bedroom, locking the door behind him. He leans back on it and spreads his coat as he faces the man who ogles him open mouthed. The target is already sprawled on the bed and he's probably nearing sixty with all that gray hair and the prominent wrinkles that line his face and Jihoon is lucky he's used to his job because his insides are stuck in his throat threatening to flee his body. "They actually sent toy size this time. Just as I asked," the target adds and Jihoon actually lets out an incredulous chuckle at that. _Disgusting._  He needs to end this as soon as possible.

Jihoon doesn't waste any time and sheds his jacket letting it fall to the floor and approaches the bed in slow strides, raising one knee on top of the mattress. The target sits up taking off his watch and puts it aside practically cracking his knuckles with eagerness. He's not looking at Jihoon's face at all so Jihoon lets himself escape with a small eye roll as he bends his finger so the target comes closer to him. The man behaves pretty well. Listens immediately, and as soon as his thick hairy fingers touch Jihoon's skin, Jihoon has his hands around his head as he twists harshly watching the lifeless body fall back onto the bed.

"Ugh," he shakes his body out. He probably should've taken some time, the bodyguards outside will probably be confused at the lack of... noise but Jihoon has some dignity he'd like to save considering he'll be a divorcee at twenty-eight soon.

 

to cheol: _done_

to jihoon:  _so quickly? i think there are agents at his office stall a bit while i check_

 

Jihoon sighs. He glances at the door and sees there's a shadow right outside probably of one of the guards and swallows his humiliation away.

"You like being tied don't you?" He says in a weird sexy voice he's definitely not used to anymore. "Keep your mouth shut and behave yourself like the good boy you are." He thinks he hears laughter outside his room and looks pitifully at the dead body on the bed. He doesn't even know who the guy was. He learned a long time ago it's better not to get familiar with targets, they haunt you less that way. He keeps uttering moans and cheesy dirty talk and even moves around the bed a little until he notices a business card on the bedside table and the curiosity and the boredom of having fake sex gets the best of him.

“Oh yeah ba-“ his voice dies halfway as he reads the card.  _Hoshi Enterprises_. Jihoon frowns, heart stuttering into high pace, because that's the company Soonyoung works for. He thinks he ought to make some noise because it’s weird that everything got so silent but he can’t make himself utter anything. Why is there a target from Soonyoung's workplace? From what Jihoon knows Soonyoung works at an investment company and he doubts some guy with a desk job would be ordering male hookers to the Plaza with two bodyguards in the other room and a target to his head.

He texts Cheol that he's leaving at the same time that there's a knock on the door. Jihoon guesses it would be weird that some vocal sexy times would suddenly fall silent so he doesn't waste time pocketing the card and taking out the mechanical rope he has stashed inside of his jacket for the ultimate escape out the window.

"Sir?" The bodyguard knocks and Jihoon pushes away any murdering guilt he has. It's his job. Get over it. He opens the window right as the door starts getting pushed in and by the time the bodyguard has barged inside Jihoon is jumping out the window, the tightrope holding him up so he won't turn into mush as he lands swiftly on the pavement.

There’s a valet right in front of him upon landing and Jihoon nonchalantly asks if he could bring him his car, ignoring the way the man stares at him in shock, either at the fact that he just dropped from the sky or because he caught a glimpse of Jihoon's stockings. Still, the worker nods, and in two minutes Jihoon is in his car driving back home the card securely in his pocket. Ju Minhyuk it said. COO of  _Hoshi Enterprises._ Soonyoung's boss. Jihoon lights his forth cigarette of the night and hopes sincerely this is all some weird coincidence.

 

✗

 

Soonyoung somehow won ten thousand dollars playing with these idiots even though he isn't even trying. They're starting to get angry too and Soonyoung doesn't know how to let them know he isn’t cheating but that they’re just shitty poker players without the room turning into a bloodbath before his actual target shows up. He checks his watch quickly, it's almost nine. He's supposed to be home in forty minutes to head over to Jeonghan's.

"So, it's just the three of you usually?" He asks slurring his words, pretending to be much more affected by his whiskey than he really is. One glass is nothing to a man with a shitty marriage, it takes him at least four of these to feel anything.

“Ey, ey! Less talking more money,” one of the men growls, antsy over how much money he’s losing and Soonyoung can relate. If their boss doesn’t show up all he’ll be left with is ten thousand bucks when this mission is worth at least a hundred times more than that.

Almost on cue the door behind them opens and Soonyoung immediately has his hand on his gun, ready.

“What’s going on?” The man asks, pissed. Maybe this one’s smarter than the men working under him but then again who hires idiots who let a stranger sit down at their secret lair no matter how much money he offers. Soonyoung turns around to confirm that he’s the target and yep, looks identical to the picture Jun sent him earlier. “Who the fuck are you?” The man spits out when their eyes meet and Soonyoung smiles.

“The polite thing is to say hello,” he tells him casually and before the man can say anything else there’s a bullet in his brain and Soonyoung takes care of the other three before the body hits the ground. He sighs, grabbing the money he won and leaving the rest feeling uncomfortable stealing from dead men and exits the room leaving the mission behind.

Back on the dance floor the world goes on and Soonyoung allows himself a few seconds to lament before he shoves those feelings aside. In the killing business feeling guilty is not an option or he’ll really lose his mind.

He makes it home five minutes before the agreed time and when he walks in to change he can smell cigarette smoke. Jihoon only smokes when they fight and even though they didn’t earlier, their whole marriage feels like a huge never-ending fight these days.

There’s a vibration in his pocket and Soonyoung takes out his phone to check the text. It’s from Jun.

 

to Soonyoung:  _someone killed minhyuk.. never liked the guy but the situation is fishy_

 

Minhyuk? Really? Soonyoung wasn’t a fan of the guy either but there’s no reason to kill him unless someone found out the real type of business he’s running and that’s definitely not good news.

 

to Jun: _keep me updated. took care of the other guy btw_

to Soonyoung:  _cool enjoy your dinner_

to Jun: _say hi to your mom_

to Soonyoung:  _she’ll be happy to hear from you thanks :)_

 

Soonyoung rolls his eyes and washes his face before applying some cologne to at least smell presentable and not like he just walked through sweaty bodies and sat in a smoked up room he left with four dead men.

“Ready?” He hears behind him and turns around to see Jihoon. He’s in black pants and a maroon sweater and there’s even a tint of eyeshadow in the corner of his eyes. He looks good in a way that feels strangely painful considering they’ve been together for five years.

They look at each other for a long few minutes and the emptiness of both their stares makes Soonyoung want to scream. He thought maybe the mission would’ve helped but he feels more pent up than ever. This isn’t the type of atmosphere he wants to come home to with a job that’s stressful enough.

“Let’s go,” he says simply and walks past him without sparing him another look.

As soon as they’re ringing Jeonghan and Joshua’s doorbell, he has his arm around Jihoon and it’s as if they’re the happiest couple alive. Soonyoung’s double life is enough practice to be able to do that but Jihoon’s swift ability to sink into the role as well is almost concerning. Jihoon passes Jeonghan the red wine as their present and even kisses Soonyoung’s cheek after he recites some stupid joke everyone laughs at.

The illusion is almost believable and Soonyoung takes long sips of whiskey to shove away the desire of it. Their marriage is not this pretend, he reminds himself through the burning in his throat. They just don’t want to explain to anyone this is the most body contact they’ve had in months and this is the first time he’s seen Jihoon smile in weeks. He misses that smile. He takes another sip.

The party is casual and in a few hours Jihoon rejoins him after talking to some other acquaintances. The two don’t really know anyone here, they’re both busy people and Soonyoung just maintains this friendly neighbor role so they don’t look suspicious on the block. The more innocent he seems the less questions asked.

“I have work early tomorrow,” Jihoon whispers in his ear when it’s nearing twelve. “Can we go?”

Soonyoung nods trying not to look too enthusiastic about the offer especially in front of Jeonghan and grins a cheery smile goodbye as they thank the hosts before leaving. .

As soon as they’re out of the house Jihoon lets go of Soonyoung’s hands feigning fixing the cuffs of his shirt and Soonyoung shoves his own hands in his pockets knowing they won’t be occupied anymore tonight.

“We have a meeting with the therapist on Thursday,” Jihoon mentions when they’re inside the house.

“Sure,” Soonyoung toes off his shoes and keeps off an annoyed scowl when Jihoon bends down to put them carefully to the side before Soonyoung has the chance to. “You know I was about to do that?”

“You always say that,” Jihoon mutters under his breath and Soonyoung’s eyes narrow on Jihoon’s back retreating to their bedroom. Soonyoung stays in the entrance for a minute longer and tries to calm himself down before following. He’s had a stressful day already, with the fake day job, spicy dinner, the poker den mission and now the party that was a great reminder of how much Soonyoung needs to pretend in order to make it seem like his life is ok. He wants to pour himself another whiskey glass but he’s had more than five at this point and tells himself it’s enough.

He goes to their bathroom where Jihoon is already brushing his teeth. Their eyes avoid each other masterfully through the mirror. Typical night routine. No talking just action and not the exciting kind. Jihoon is washing his face when Soonyoung thinks off-handedly he should take a shower especially after the whole poker den situation and starts undressing. Nothing Jihoon hasn’t seen before, just maybe he hasn’t seen it in a while and Soonyoung doesn’t really care. He climbs into the shower and after a few minutes hears Jihoon leave door closing behind him.

When he’s done with the shower he brushes his teeth and leaves the room, towel still around his waist and takes a simple pair of clean boxers and t-shirt and changes ignoring how he senses Jihoon’s stare from the bed behind him. Before going to bed he hangs the towel in the bathroom and when he returns Jihoon is still watching him.

Their eyes meet briefly but Soonyoung ignores his stare sitting down on his side of the bed, back to Jihoon. He takes off his watch and rubs his wrist before checking his phone for any new information from Jun. There’s one message and Soonyoung wonders briefly before opening it what work will be like tomorrow with Minhyuk assassinated.

 

to Soonyoung:  _last person w him was a hooker, male one too apparently. his guards say he was short black haired and that's about it…_

 

Soonyoung narrows his eyes at the screen.

“How was work?” Jihoon asks all of a sudden and Soonyoung turns his head slightly but doesn’t fully turn around. Short and black haired… He needs a moment to think.

“Huh?” He replies dumbly.

“You said you had something to do at work earlier,” Jihoon reminds him. “Did it go well?”

Soonyoung glances at Jihoon strangely. Jihoon never cares how his work is going. Not anymore at least.  

“Fine,” Soonyoung says off-handedly, climbing under the covers. This has to be some weird coincidence. Jihoon was waiting for him at home the entire time, it couldn’t have been him. He’s a fucking music producer who was changing their curtains the entire day for fuck’s sake, why is Soonyoung even wasting his time thinking about this. “Some clients received wrong transactions and the intern didn’t know how to deal with it.” He hopes the excuse sounds valid enough not that he cares if Jihoon thinks he might be cheating.

He lays on his back and closes his eyes. Jihoon’s nightlight is still on and Soonyoung doesn’t want to hear Jihoon’s annoyed sigh if he asks him to turn it off.

“You smell like cigarettes,” he says instead and Jihoon doesn’t reply before he wordlessly leaves the bed to shower and Soonyoung turns off the light for him and goes to sleep.

 

✗

 

A week later Jihoon gets a hit job in the Nevada region and it’s an excuse to escape the house for a few days so he takes it immediately. He tells Soonyoung he has to meet with some producers in Las Vegas, he doesn’t like lying too much about where he’s going and that’s a solid enough excuse.

The mission is some FBI hacker being transferred to the Mexican border through the desert. As usual, Jihoon doesn’t ask any additional questions about the target. He isn’t interested. He’s still hung up on the Minhyuk guy from Soonyoung’s work. The day after the mission he had asked Soonyoung about work again and Soonyoung said their COO had died from a sudden heart attack, probably from stress, and Jihoon couldn’t really reply anything to that.

 _Hoshi Enterprises._ Jihoon never thought of Soonyoung’s job being anything more than an investment company. Jihoon doubts it’s actually anything more than that, too. Maybe Minhyuk was a black stain in the management. Things happen.

Jihoon himself is well off with the work he’s done as an assassin and producer on the side, he never worried much about Soonyoung’s job and how much money it brings to the table so he hadn’t fully looked into what he does. When he asked Cheol to research Soonyoung’s company, Cheol told Jihoon to ask less questions and Jihoon knows that’s a red alert but until he and Soonyoung figure out their at-home issues he doesn’t want to add other problems into the mix.

While he sets up his lair in the desert, he thinks briefly maybe his lack of interest in his husband’s work life is part of the reason their relationship is so weak now. He should mention that to their therapist when he’s back in the city.

"Okay,” Cheol says through Jihoon’s earpiece. Jihoon’s hiding place is a small hut atop a mountain and his gun is already aiming at the road from which the target is supposed to come. “The target is coming from two o'clock in about ten minutes. Did you set up the mines like we discussed?"

Jihoon opens the small laptop he carries with him and presses the spacebar to wake it up. "Yes," he positions himself while the computer loads. "Confirming..." He mutters to see if everything is place. When the laptop loads the map with bright yellow buttons spread along the road he hums. "All good,” he says, then grumbles, "Since when do we add FBI on our hit list?" They don’t interfere with government agents for many reasons.

"Not sure," he can hear Cheol's chewing on some sandwich and realizes he forgot to eat breakfast that morning. "Hacked some wrong people. Us included. Young lackey too, those are always reckless.”

"Same men Minhyuk crossed?" Jihoon asks instead of focusing on the fact that Cheol mentioned his target is young. That’s never pleasant to hear.

Cheol pauses for a minute so all Jihoon can hear is chewing. "It's not like you to mull over a past target."

"You know why I'm mulling over this one," Jihoon tells him and Cheol sighs.

"Jihoon," he starts carefully. "I'm saying this for your own good, don't mess with this."

"I'm not messing with anything," Jihoon can hear the bite in his own tone but he's a little too frustrated over the situation to care. "I just want answers."

"Well, want them a little less Jihoon," Seungcheol says voice serious and quiet and before Jihoon can reply he hears a motorcycle in the distance and turns his head towards the sound.

"Is the target coming on a motorcycle?"

"No, why?"

"Someone's approaching from 8 o'clock," Jihoon reaches for his goggles to stare closer at the approaching figure. "They're on a sand bike, probably some tourist." He's about to just ignore the rider hoping he'll go around the mountain and away from the highway rigged with motion sensitive bombs but the rider continues going at full speed.

"Cheol, what the hell? Did you send someone else here? Tell him to back off!"

"You're the only one we sent!" Cheol responds and Jihoon can hear him typing through the receiver. "If he's in the way make him stop Jihoon, we'll take care of the mess. Your target is the priority."

Jihoon winces. He really doesn't believe in killing civilians. He watches the rider make zigzags on the sand and he swears he hears him yelling cheerfully and he knows he can't kill an innocent man for having fun.

"I'll blow his wheel," Jihoon tells Cheol.

"I don't care what you do just make sure he doesn't reach the bombs before the target does."

Jihoon is too annoyed for Cheol's emotionless agent speech and he throws off his earpiece and aims his gun at the driver riding recklessly towards the road.

"Breathe," Jihoon tells himself. He wouldn't want to accidentally shoot the man when he was so full of justice a moment earlier. When he thinks he figured out the man's movements he fires. The shot misses and it’s far enough that the rider shouldn’t notice it but this one does because he stops immediately and looks around. Jihoon swears the man stares right at the hut first and even keeps looking for a few seconds before he sits back down and keeps going and Jihoon scrambles for his gun to try again.

He doesn't have time to take aim before the rider stops again on top of a small hill and it's good that he did because he's about five hundred meters away from where Jihoon has planned to take down his target and watching an assassination probably isn't this random man's idea of a fun desert motorbike ride. While Jihoon debates whether or not to shoot the man down, the biker climbs off to walk a few steps away and even though his back is to Jihoon it's not hard to figure out what he's doing.

"Fuck's sake," Jihoon grumbles. Like he needs a random man pissing next to his mission. Jihoon watches the man finish off and leans his gun on his knee just hoping that he will climb back onto his bike and disappear the way he came. He doesn't. Instead he disconnects something from the side of his bike and-

"What the fuck?!" Jihoon grabs his sniper and aims his own gun immediately. A fucking bazooka? Who the hell is this guy?!

At the same time there's car noise from two o'clock just like Cheol said there'd be and now Jihoon has a man aiming a bazooka towards the incoming car and no fucking way he's about to steal his target!

While the man is distracted aiming, Jihoon takes a shot and expertly grazes the man's arm making him fall, bazooka down on the ground to support him from totally collapsing. This time the man definitely knows where the shot is coming from because he doesn't hesitate to turn his whole self around, bazooka with him, and point it at Jihoon's hiding place.

"Fuck…” Jihoon mutters staring down the barrel of the gun and before he hears the shot he runs.

 

✗

 

Soonyoung loves the adrenaline of last minute missions. Jihoon had another weird meeting god knows where. They live in New York for fucks sake, what artist is cooped up all the way in in Las Vegas? At least make the lie believable, say you’re going to LA or something. Sometimes Soonyoung wishes Jihoon would just tell him he's cheating instead of giving him all these weird excuses and finally put their whole marriage out of misery.

The mission is easy, more or less. Deserted desert, next to Vegas too actually. He’s got a bazooka and a man in a car that needs to be killed. Bleh. Easy. Soonyoung is just glad he has a distraction from the hellhole that is his home.

He takes a piss before the car arrives. He thought somebody shot him earlier but must've been a pebble flying off from the bike or something even though there's an eerie hut up on a mountain nearby but Soonyoung doubts two agents would be assigned for the same desert mission. It's secluded enough as it is and for fuck's sake, he has a bazooka.

Luck isn't on his side, though, because as soon as he takes his gun out someone shoots again and this time their shot actually grazes him and Soonyoung falls onto the ground from the pain in his arm.

"What the fuck," he growls at the burning from the cut. Okay, it's the hut. Definitely. Without thinking, he uses his whole body strength to turn around and fire at the hut, watching it explode in pieces. The bazooka is heavy on his shoulder and Soonyoung marvels at its destruction abilities, slightly terrified. "You should  _so_ not be allowed to buy these things," he mutters in awe.

He hears cars skidding behind him and realizes that fuck, his target was coming in right as he shot. He tries to reload the bazooka as quickly as possible to shoot at the cars but they're already aware of what's going on and are turning around. By the time Soonyoung makes the shot it falls short. He considers shooting a third time when he hears another vehicle behind him and turns to see someone driving away on a desert jeep from the direction of the hut. In a few seconds everything is quiet and Soonyoung finds himself alone in the empty desert, the hut still burning slightly behind him, and he sighs.

Failed mission.

Disappointing, but Soonyoung doesn't fully care about it especially when his arm is bleeding from the bullet that grazed him. He takes some emergency gauze and disinfector he keeps in his mission bag and applies it to his cut. Then he rips off some of his shirt to wrap it tightly around his arm to prevent more bleeding. Usually if injured he'd rush back to see a proper doctor, but he kind of wants to check out the hut for possible hints of the cross-attacker who ruined his mission.

He gets back onto the motorcycle and rides around the mountain where there are steps to climb up to where the remains of the shack still stand. He must've scared whoever was there pretty hard because they left everything behind including a laptop.

Soonyoung picks it up and the whole thing is destroyed but it's okay, Soonyoung thinks. He knows a guy.

As soon as he checks his arm in a clinic back in Vegas he takes a flight out to New York. Jihoon isn't home yet when he's dropped off by the company car which is great because Soonyoung can change his gauze in peace without his husband asking why he's bleeding profusely out of his arm. When that's done he drives to the city to his favorite hacker for a laptop consultation.

"Minghao," Soonyoung smiles coming in. Minghao’s store is an electronic reseller but it’s messy and not at all organized and Soonyoung assumes Minghao doesn't actually care much for the store when he gets a good enough income from helping companies like Soonyoung’s.

"Tell Jun I said no," Minghao says as soon as Soonyoung’s inside. He's leaning back in his desk chair, in a usual long coat like some Inspector Gadget cosplayer. He even has the whole monocle thing going on, the only thing he's missing is a hat, but Soonyoung thinks his mullet makes up for it. It's Minghao's current fashion statement and Soonyoung is really isn’t one to judge especially when the last time bought himself something was years ago because usually Jihoon took care of those things.

"I'm not here about Jun, actually," Soonyoung approaches the desk putting the crumbled laptop onto it.

"Good," Minghao sits up, long fingers reaching for the laptop. "What the hell is this?"

"A laptop," Soonyoung smiles innocently. "I want to know who it belongs to."

"It belongs in the trash," Minghao doesn't mean that as a joke and Soonyoung purses his lips.

"I'm serious, Hao," he leans onto the table slightly, voice lowering. "Whoever this belongs to shot at me, I need to know who it was."

That seems to get Minghao’s attention as his eyes scan him, looking for the bullet wound. "You have any idea of who it might've been?"

"I think it might've been a woman. They were pretty small," Soonyoung recalls.

Minghao raises a brow at Soonyoung's association when they both know his husband isn’t very large either, but he takes the laptop to observe it anyway. "There's usually an I.P. code somewhere I can cross-search with some servers to see where it was bought from. I'm afraid the hard drive is totally destroyed, though,” he says pointing at the hole in the middle of the laptop. “Did you shoot at it?"

"Not intentionally," Soonyoung chews on his lip. "I shot a bazooka at the shooter."

Minghao's brow raises even higher. "Must've been pretty pissed."

"Livid."

"Alright, then," Minghao sits down and takes out some tools to scratch through the laptop in search of the details he needs. "Give me fifteen minutes."

Soonyoung does, leaning on some old TV on the side, and wonders offhandedly if he should check with Jihoon how he’s been since they haven't spoken in a few days. He almost texts him, too, and finds that he’s too nervous to. It’s a weird feeling but an inescapable one as well. He has completely forgotten what it’s like to speak comfortably with him. To show interest. Closing his inbox, he chooses to play some snake game instead until Minghao calls him over.

"It says the laptop was delivered to 601 Lexington Ave," Minghao reads from his computer screen. Soonyoung frowns for a moment until he realizes why the address sounds so familiar. "What's wrong?" Minghao asks because Soonyoung's panic must be pretty obvious and Soonyoung himself can feel his forehead sweating from the realization.

"I need to go," Soonyoung says walking backwards out of the store. "I owe you, okay? Please destroy that laptop."

Minghao looks confused at him. "Sure, and it's fine. My pleasure. As long as you make Jun stop texting me."

"He really likes you," Soonyoung says, even though his mind is in a whole other place right now.

"I'm not interested in hooking up with a man whose mom will knock on our door after we're done to see if we're hungry."

Soonyoung actually lets out a laugh at that. "I'll let him know. Thanks Minghao. Don't tell anyone I was here, okay?"

Minghao nods and before Soonyoung leaves the shop he stops him. "Hey, Soonyoung!” He calls out worriedly. “Stay safe, alright? If you need help, you know where to find me."

"Thank you," Soonyoung says and means it and leaves the shop to head to the address. He doesn't even need to check the map where it is because he's been there before. Back when he was Soonyoung Kwon in love and picked up his boyfriend after work so they could go on a date and not Soonyoung Lee who doesn't text his husband unless one of them needs to get last minute groceries for the fridge in a kitchen they still somehow share.

He gets to Jihoon's office building and stares at the revolving doors with the big six zero one above them. 601 Lexington Ave. The small body escaping the scene wasn't a woman's after all, it was Jihoon's.  _What the fuck,_ Soonyoung thinks his chest pounding and feels his eyes burn.

"Jihoon..." he mutters out loud, staring up the building. "Who the fuck are you?"

 

✗

 

Jihoon has to stay overnight at a hospital in Nevada because he has too many wood shards in his body and it takes almost twelve hours to get them all out. As soon as he's checked out he takes a flight back to New York and doesn't go home because he's too pissed at Cheol and the bazooka man who shot at him in the first place.

"What on earth?!" Jihoon barges into their office and everyone steps out of his way as he beelines towards Cheol. "You cross booked the mission?!" He yells at him. Cheol's eyes widen and Jihoon knows he's looking at the scratches all over Jihoon's body and the bruise he has on the side of his face from when he jumped from the hut to outrun the bazooka shot.

"Jihoon, I-" Cheol starts but Jihoon cuts him off.

"I don't want excuses, Seungcheol," he growls. "Isn't there some sort of assassin network? Whoever claims the mission gets it. How could you double book me?!" He lowers his voice because everyone in the office is trying to overhear and Jihoon isn't about people listening in on their private conversation especially when he's so angry.

He's not making it up, too. There's a listing for targets and companies are usually pretty respectful and almost never interfere when targets are claimed. Because if they do situations like this happen. Jihoon could've lost a limb if he didn't jump out sooner. He could've lost his life. He hates how his first thought about that is who'll tell Soonyoung and how will they explain to him what happened.

"So?!" Jihoon demands when Cheol hasn't said anything.

"Jihoon, I didn't know. I swear! You know I'd never put you in that danger," he ensures and Jihoon wants to believe him but he's too angry.

"Pull up the cameras," he says instead of yelling at Seungcheol again and plops onto a chair beside him. "I need to know who this idiot was."

Jihoon's company is pretty wealthy so there's usually a drone keeping track of their surroundings especially when they're in secluded areas like the desert. That's another reason Jihoon is so pissed, there's no way that drone wouldn't have warned Jihoon about the incoming rider if the person wasn't either from or being expected by his company.

The screen in front of him replays yesterday. Empty until there's a biker diving zigzags through the desert to stop for a second when Jihoon shot at him and then keep going until he gets off at a small clearing on a hill to take a piss. Jihoon watches in secondhand embarrassment as the man shakes his legs to get the last of his piss and pauses the video when he notices something on the lower part of his shin. He zooms in the video and sees there's a tattoo there. It's of a star and Jihoon feels air freeze in his lungs.

Soonyoung has a tattoo of a star right above his ankle. This is just a coincidence, right? He remembers Minhyuk and  _Hoshi Enterprises_ and feels his heart hammer in his chest. It can't be. It can't be please for god's sake...

Seungcheol notices Jihoon staring at the tattoo and tries to get the mouse from Jihoon. "It's probably just a-"

"What do you know?!" Jihoon's voice is low and harsh and Seungcheol leans back surprised by Jihoon's aggression.

"It's not him," Seungcheol says, but he doesn't sound convincing. Actually it's more like he sounds as if he doesn't want Jihoon to keep watching the video. Stubbornly, Jihoon presses play and watches the man get shot, turn around and shoot the bazooka at Jihoon's hut. The ricochet of the explosion has the drone video cut off and Jihoon stares at the screen like it had just betrayed him. "Are you kidding me!" He yells grabbing the computer and when Seungcheol lays a hand on his forearm to calm him down Jihoon pulls harshly away.

"Don't touch me," he tells him angrily and gets up, hands leaning on the table as he breathes heavily.

" _Hoshi Enterprises,_ that tattoo..." Then he shoots Seungcheol a glare. "What do you know about this?!"

"I know you're probably not thinking clearly right now."

"I hate to see you lie to me, Seungcheol," Jihoon might be small but he can be terrifying and he can see Seungcheol is sweating under his stare. "I trust you a lot. Don't become someone I can't trust," he warns and before Seungcheol can reply Mingyu, their tall yet sweet assistant, approaches them nervously.

"Mr. Lee?" He asks carefully and takes a step back when Jihoon shifts his pissed stare at him. "Your husband is on the phone."

Jihoon's jaw drops and he doesn't know what to say for a few seconds. "What does he want?" He croaks out finally.

"He wants to know what time dinner is at?" Mingyu's voice is shaky because Jihoon looks validly on the brink of a breakdown. Instead of replying, Jihoon exchanges looks with Seungcheol who seems as nervous as their assistant. What a strange fucking situation, Jihoon thinks. He has worked in a risky business for a long enough time to know to trust his instinct and now.... He's almost completely sure he's right and can’t decide if the thought terrifies or excites him or both, but right now his ears are still ringing from the realization and all he wants is to get to the truth.

He turns back to Mingyu and feels his smile twist into something cruel.

"Tell him dinner’s at seven," he says. "And tell him to make sure he is on time.”

 

✗

 

"He asks not to be late," Jihoon's assistant had told him over the phone earlier.  _Yeah, yeah, whatever,_ Soonyoung thinks as he rides up to the house a few minutes before seven. He spent the entire afternoon trying to look up Jihoon Lee in all kinds of databases and came back without any answers other than some music articles. He's almost sure that the man who shot at him in that desert was Jihoon, so how is he so well hidden?

Before he gets out of the car he takes out his ring from the glovebox, not that their marriage will last much longer if his assumptions are confirmed but he might as well play the husband role for a little while longer. The feeling of the metal sliding against his finger is cold and Soonyoung thinks it's not too far off from how he feels inside either.

When he enters the house, he doesn't say hello, staying quiet as he closes the door behind him. If Jihoon is the man Soonyoung thinks he is, he probably knows he has arrived, but Soonyoung still stays silent by the entryway trying to hear for any hint of Jihoon about the house.

"Perfect timing," Jihoon says coming around the corner and smiling mechanically, holding a martini and hands it over to Soonyoung as he comes nearer.

Soonyoung straightens immediately, taking the drink. "As always," he smiles back and his cheeks ache from the plasticity of it.

"How was your trip?" Jihoon asks, laying a cold hand on Soonyoung's cheek and Soonyoung surpasses a shudder when his thumb grazes along the top of his cheekbone. He grits his teeth against the feeling of being touched by Jihoon after so long and keeps the fake smile.

"Great," he says, teeth scraping against each other and Jihoon drops his hand, the look in his eyes knowing and Soonyoung can't help but think this is the first time he's seen Jihoon look so... Alive.

"I missed you," Jihoon tells him and for a moment Soonyoung almost believes him.

"Missed you, too," he says quietly before placing a free hand on Jihoon's waist to spin him around gently. "Shall we? I'm starving."

Jihoon walks ahead of him and when they walk past a plant Soonyoung spills most of the drink discreetly into the pot. He's not entirely convinced yet, but he doesn't think he can completely trust Jihoon at the moment. Jihoon must've heard him but he doesn't say anything, instead he stops at the archway before entering the kitchen and turns around to pluck out the olive from the middle of Soonyoung’s glass and pop it pointedly into his mouth.

 _So it’s not poisoned,_ Soonyoung's eyes narrow as he watches Jihoon disappear into the kitchen and throws his head back to finish the drink clean.

While Jihoon is in the kitchen, Soonyoung sits down on his side of the table. It's set up fancy, as always, with two sets of cutlery even though they never have entrées and always skip to the main dish but Jihoon likes his order and Soonyoung was never bothered by it until everything about their marriage became an annoyance. He eyes the two sets of knives and glancing towards the kitchen before quickly hiding one of them expertly under his sleeve. Just in case, he tells himself.

Jihoon walks in a moment later, a huge chuck of roast beef on a platter and his hands in adorable oversized mittens carrying it.  _Adorable?_ Soonyoung thinks, slightly baffled. The knife under his sleeve is cold against his forearm and he reminds himself of why it's there in the first place. He narrows his eyes as he watches Jihoon lift the sharp cutting knife and run it along the edge of the board as if sharpening it one last time and the sound of it has Soonyoung jumping up his seat.

"Allow me, sweetheart?" He asks sweetly and Jihoon raises a brow at him stepping aside. Soonyoung swallows nervously, subtly leaving his hidden knife on the seat of his chair as he gets up to cut the meat himself. Jihoon watches him for a few slices then walks over to the loaf of bread and starts slicing it with an equally sharp knife he had hidden under it and smiles innocently at Soonyoung who doesn’t smile back.

Once both are equally sliced, Soonyoung sits down, eyeing Jihoon take a platter of green beans and approach him with it. Jihoon still has that knowing, secretive smile plastered on his face while Soonyoung has no desire to smile at all anymore. Real or fake.

"Green beans?" Jihoon asks when he’s by his side, while Soonyoung lays the napkin across his knees, steak knife hidden underneath.

"No, thanks," he replies without looking up and Jihoon puts some on his plate, anyway.

"You'll have some," he tells him sweetly and Soonyoung squeezes his hands into fists to keep himself calm.

"How was your trip?" Soonyoung asks to distract himself.

"Hmm," Jihoon shrugs placing a piece of meat onto Soonyoung's plate. "Not too well. There was a double booking with a different producer. We lost the client."

Soonyoung almost smirks. "Must've been a pretty big competition," he says casually, taking a bite of his beans.

Jihoon takes a sip of his pre-poured wine as he sits down. "I wouldn't call them competition, nobody got the client. The other guy was kind of obnoxious, sticking his nose where he wasn't supposed to, that kind of 'competition’," he air-quotes with a free hand and Soonyoung's eyes narrow.

"Well," Soonyoung says with a gritty smile. "I hope everything works out."

"It hasn't yet," Jihoon smiles back over the top of his glass. "But it will."

Soonyoung swallows again. That gaze... So alive and sharp. It's been years since he's seen it and Soonyoung is surprised by how much he missed it. "Would you pass me the salt?" He asks after taking a bite of the meat.

Jihoon still hasn't taken any bites off his food and he tilts his head glancing down to the spot by Soonyoung's plate and Soonyoung follows his gaze to find the saltshaker next to where his second knife is supposed to be. Soonyoung clears his throat. "Thanks."

"Tell me about your job,” Jihoon says then, finally picking up a fork but still not eating. “Everything went well?"

"I told you didn't I? It was fine," Soonyoung takes a few more bites of his food. At least the meat is okay. Maybe he'll make it through this dinner after all.

As if to mock him, when Soonyoung looks up he notices a reflection in the mirror behind Jihoon. It says [WARNING: POISON] in such big red letters it's almost comical. Soonyoung is experienced enough to know that no real poison actually has such obnoxious warnings on their box but the piece of meat in his mouth still has trouble going down his throat when he swallows. He looks back down at Jihoon, who unlike Soonyoung hasn't touched his green beans at all, and narrows his eyes.

"Tried something new?"

"Maybe," Jihoon smiles, finishing his glass of wine. "You like it?"

Soonyoung doesn't like the way Jihoon looks like he thinks he's winning so he takes a huge bite of beans pointedly, watching Jihoon's smile spread, and shoves it in his mouth. "Sure," he says chewing. "It's crunchy."

"Please keep your mouth closed when you chew," Jihoon sighs. "We've discussed this. Your manners are disgusting."

"Yet you married me anyway," Soonyoung says, mouth full of mushed beans and Jihoon's gaze on him isn't regretful but sad.

Before Soonyoung can think too much about what that look means he gets up, once again placing the knife below the napkin on his chair, and walks around the table grabbing the bottle of wine on the way to pour Jihoon another glass.

"Delicious dinner as always," he says as he pours the wine and Jihoon lays his chin on his hand watching him.

"Thank you, honey," he doesn't even try to sound genuine. His voice is as flat as his gaze. It's pissing him off, Soonyoung realizes. This weird game they're playing. The fake poison in the mirror, the competition of sharp knives, the pretending that they're in love. Soonyoung sticks out his hand, the one holding the bottle, and watches Jihoon watch him steadily back. Without warning he lets go of the bottle and on auto-pilot Jihoon sticks out the hand that isn't supporting his head and catches it midair. Soonyoung can't help but smile at that.  _Caught you_ , he thinks. No average person has reflexes that good and Jihoon's eyes widen when realizing his mistake and he lets go of the bottle anyway, red spilling across their white dining room carpet but it's too late. The spell is already broken.

"Excuse me," Jihoon says quickly pushing his chair away from the table. "I think I need some water."

"You do you, sweetheart," Soonyoung smirks, leaning his hip on the table as he watches Jihoon disappear into the kitchen. He looks down at his feet, surrounded by the bright red liquid. A premonition of sorts. The ring against his finger is still cold and when Soonyoung hears some commotion in the kitchen he blinks away the distraction and heads back to his chair to grab the knife. No denying it now, he thinks, and just like any mission, he better carry it through to the end.

 

✗

 

Jihoon leans his palms on the marble counter of the kitchen island letting the coldness of it seep through his hands to his arms and through his whole body.  _Pull yourself together_ , he thinks. He feels like he can't breathe. It started off like a game and maybe Jihoon was in more denial than he thought because it was a little funny up until the point he caught the bottle and Soonyoung's smirk turned dangerous that Jihoon's first instinct was to take his butter knife and sink it between his husband’s ribs.

The idea of killing Soonyoung... It terrifies him. And how automatically that idea came to him.... It makes him sick.

He pushes himself off the counter and puts in a code in his microwave looking over his shoulder to make sure Soonyoung hadn't followed him into the kitchen. When the microwave deconstructs itself by pushing out a shelf of weapons, he grabs two guns, squeezing one in the back of his pants, and presses another code to make the secret space return to its previous disguise.

"Jihoonie? Honey?" He hears Soonyoung's voice from the dining room as soon as he turns around. "You good?"

"Just peachy," Jihoon yells back.

"Why don't you come back here then? Dinner's getting cold~" He singsongs and Jihoon feels thickness in his throat. If not for the gun in his hand and the coolness of the second one against his back all of this almost feels normal. Soonyoung calling him for dinner in that cute voice of his and Jihoon can see it for a moment, him going back there, giving Soonyoung a kiss on his cheek telling him he’s fine, pulling his chair closer to his side of the table and feeding him green beans and Soonyoung kissing his nose when Jihoon says too much salt is bad for him.

He hates it. He hates how much he misses it. He hates how much he misses  _him_ and knowing that now, whether their marriage was perfect or awful, things will never be the same.

"Jihoonie?" He hears again and this time Soonyoung's voice isn't sweet but on edge, full of suspicion and Jihoon recognizes it as his own mission voice.

 _Right,_ he thinks,  _a mission_. That's what Jihoon is to him after all, right? He thinks for a moment whether or not to go back to the dining room, gun off safety and just finish it once and for all, but the bile that raises in his throat at the sheer thought of it is enough reason not to. He glances at the garage door on the other side of the kitchen. It's a cowardly thing to do, Jihoon knows it, but if he can prolong this confrontation for a little while longer he doesn’t mind.

 

✗

 

Soonyoung’s back is pressed against the wall by the archway that leads to the kitchen and his knife is ready in his hand as he waits for Jihoon to come back but he doesn't.

"Jihoonie?" He tries again, knowing how emotionless his voice sounds but there's still no response. Did Jihoon run away? Jihoon doesn't seem like a person to run away from anything unless maybe when there's a bazooka gun aimed at him and really, who can blame him for that?

Soonyoung’s about to just fuck it, enter the kitchen and finish it all for good when he hears the engine of Jihoon's car in the garage and sprints towards it without a second thought.

By the time he's in the garage, Jihoon's car is speeding off their driveway and Soonyoung squeezes the knife in his hand angrily. He throws it aside, remembering he has a gun in the trunk of his own car and gets it before sprinting after Jihoon.

Soonyoung is athletic, for his job he has to be, but running after a car even for Soonyoung is fucking difficult. It helps that he knows their neighborhood well enough that he can sprint through gardens, backyards and children swings, until he expertly reaches the road parallel to their own and watches Jihoon's car drive at him at full speed.

"Fuck," Soonyoung mutters, watching the headlights come closer and it's a weird feeling watching a car approach him so quickly and knowing that despite all the shittiness that constitutes their marriage, Jihoon would never actually hurt him.

He's right. The lights blind him but the car screeches to a halt right in front of him and Soonyoung opens his eyes to see Jihoon staring at him from behind the wheel. He's not sure, his eyes still blinded by the bright headlights, but he thinks Jihoon might be crying and that's enough to have him raising his hands in defeat.

"Jihoon," he says loud enough for Jihoon to hear him or at least be able to read his lips. "We need to talk, please."

Jihoon doesn’t respond but Soonyoung can see his chest heaving.

"Jihoon, ple-" Soonyoung says lowering his hands on top of the hood of Jihoon's car and he must've turned off safety earlier because when his finger twitches unprofessionally against the gun's trigger it shoots blowing off the side mirror of Jihoon's car.

"Oh fuck," Soonyoung curses again eyes shifting to Jihoon whose own eyes have doubled in size.

Jihoon shoves his car door open immediately aiming at Soonyoung and Soonyoung sprints backwards, hands raising. "Honey, it was an accident, I swear, I'm so sorry, Jihoonie please-"

"You son of a bitch!" Jihoon yells back and Soonyoung falls to the ground as soon as the shot is out. He looks between his fingers to see if another gunshot is coming but Jihoon is already back in his car and before Soonyoung's mind can comprehend what's happening Jihoon floors it.

This time it’s clear Jihoon isn’t taking any mercy and Soonyoung runs for his dear life down the road towards some bushes at the end of it and he thinks that's a good spot to run off, right? Jihoon won't disturb this pretty, perfect way their neighborhood is designed. That's the reason they picked out a house there in the first place! The whole green nature of it, Jihoon still stands by that, right?!

Soonyoung jumps expertly over the bushes when he reaches them and turns around speechless when he finds the car not slowing down at all. When the car crashes through the bushes, the driver seat is empty and if it wasn't for Soonyoung’s ten years of experience, that really would've been the end for him.

 

✗

 

Jihoon rolls out of his car in the last second and watches from the asphalt as it keeps speeding towards the bushes. He knows there's a small pond on the other side, part of their neighborhood park, so in case of fire it won't affect the surroundings too much. He's also pretty sure Soonyoung will be fine despite his bulky Mercedes gunning for his life, but if Soonyoung didn’t jump away in time then-

Jihoon punches the ground. Hard. He knows his knuckles are bleeding but he just doesn't care. He doesn’t care about Soonyoung, either, he tells himself repeatedly as he sits up. There's a loud sound when his car crashes into the pond and Jihoon takes out his phone immediately to call Seungcheol before heading back to the house.

Seungcheol answers at the second ring. "How was dinner?"

"I need you to send someone to clean up my car," Jihoon mutters as he limps back towards his house. Jumping out of cars is never pleasant.

"You're arranging for a carwash at nine in the evening? I'll get someone to your house tomorrow-"

"I crashed the car into the lake," Jihoon cuts him off, his voice as dead as he feels. "I was chasing Soonyoung," he explains before Seungcheol can ask. "He's the bazooka shooter by the way. Confirmed. Husband of the year, both of us," he chuckles dryly but Cheol remains silent for a few seconds.

"I'm sorry, Ji," he says finally and Jihoon sighs.

"Why? It's not your fault," he says simply, then adds, "unless you knew about this from the start."

"Of course, not," he says quickly but after tonight Jihoon doesn't really know who he can trust anymore.

"Send some people to my house tomorrow morning, too," Jihoon tells him. "I'm going to find out who the fuck sent him to me before I get rid of him and anyone he's connected to," he practically growls.

"Jihoon..."

"Don't," Jihoon cuts him off again, squeezing his phone tightly in his hand. "You don't know what it's like to love someone so much, to have hope in them despite things being so shitty for so long, and then it all just–" He takes a shuddered breath to calm himself down. "I thought we'd work it out, Seungcheol."

"You still might," Seungcheol replies weekly as Jihoon walks up the driveway to his house feeling as empty as the house itself.

"You're always so strangely hopeful," he says pushing the door open. "What made you get into the assassin business when you’re so stupidly optimistic?"

"You know what," Seungcheol says in a low voice. Right, Jihoon thinks as he locks the door behind himself even though he knows Soonyoung won't be coming back tonight, Seungcheol's parents were murdered as a child. That kind of trauma changes a person, makes even the kindest person choose the path of a killer. Jihoon knows that better than anyone.

"Send a team tomorrow, will you?" Jihoon comes up to Soonyoung's liquor cabinet suddenly understanding the appeal of it. Drink. Forget. Drink more. Forget more. That's all he wants right now. Also a cigarette. But for now he pours himself a big glass.

"Yeah," Seungcheol says, voice quiet. Jihoon feels bad for mentioning his parents like that. Even after twenty years Seungcheol doesn't take it very well and Jihoon takes a huge swig of whiskey to feel it burn down his throat as a form of punishment.

"Thanks, Cheol," Jihoon says the whiskey burning low in his stomach. "I'll call you tomorrow."

"If you need anything..." Seungcheol says before hanging up. "Let me know, okay?"

" _Hoshi Enterprises_ ," Jihoon says simply, taking another swig of the burning alcohol. "Anything you can find about them, I want it."

 

✗

 

Soonyoung rolls out of the way in the last moment and watches as the car shoots through the bushes and into the lake at the bottom of the hill behind him. It takes him a few seconds of blinking dumbly at the car sinking into the water before he realizes his husband actually tried to kill him.

Fuck, he thinks. That shit hurts more than any other argument they’ve had before.

Slowly he gets up and realizes that his left arm is dislocated but he doesn’t feel any pain. He just feels empty. He reaches with his intact hand for his phone in his pocket that thankfully hasn’t fallen out through this whole chase even though it did gain a few cracks in the screen, and dials the cab service to take him to the only person he knows will take him in.

“What the hell happened to you?” Jun asks when opens the door to his house and sees Soonyoung’s state.

“Don't ever get married,” Soonyoung grits out. After the adrenaline rush disappeared his arm did start hurting like a bitch. “They all try to kill you,” he adds walking through the door and Jun helplessly steps back to let him through. Jun’s house is much smaller than his and Jihoon’s, and Soonyoung finds the humble homey kitchen pretty quickly and plops himself onto a chair. “You don’t mind, do you?” He says tilting his head towards his dislocated shoulder.

“Who did this to you?” Jun asks staring at him dumbfounded from the kitchen door.

“Who do you think? My fucking husband.”

Jun’s eyes widen as he approaches him quickly and whispers furiously. “Are you fucking insane? And you came here?”

“You’re my partner?” Soonyoung’s starting to see black at the corner of his eyes from the pain.

“Soonyoung… Jihoon’s people… They’re going to be hunting you now,” Jun’s voice is panicked and Soonyoung realizes why.

“Jihoon thinks his car crashed me,” Soonyoung’s head tilts back and he closes his eyes, breath coming out in short puffs. “I’ll be gone tomorrow just  _please_ fix my arm, Jun!”

“Shh,” Jun’s hands land softly on Soonyoung’s shoulders but Soonyoung still winces. “My mom is asleep.”

“You fucking mama’s boy,” Soonyoung growls. “Just fix my fucking arm!” He punches the table with his good hand loudly, for emphasis, and when looks up Jun is pouting.

“If you’re going to be rude about thi-“

“Jun,” Soonyoung grits out grabbing Jun with his intact arm. “I’m in so much fucking pain right now, if you don’t fix my arm in the next thirty seconds I’ll scream so loud I’ll wake up your mom and the fucking ghost of your father while I’m at it.”

Jun’s frown deepens. “No need to bring my dad into this,” he mutters but shifts to the side so he can access Soonyoung’s dislocated shoulder better. “Actually, maybe I should wake my mom up, she’s better at this than-“

“Will you stop with your mother?” Soonyoung whines leaning his head onto the back of his chair.

“Why? She gave birth to me, I owe her my life. Literally,” Jun fingers take hold of Soonyoung’s arm and Soonyoung winces. Out of all injuries he hates dislocations the most. “Why wouldn’t I mention her every chance I get? She’s my hero,” the mom talk helps because Jun pops the arm back in while Soonyoung is distracted and his last words are swallowed up by Soonyoung’s loud groan.

“Fuck,” he pounds on the table with his good arm. “Fuck husbands. Fuck marriage. Fuck love,” he grits out loudly and Jun shushes him again.

“Soonyoung, you’re a guest in my house, an uninvited one at that,” he points out taking out some towels from under his sink to tie up Soonyoung’s arm in a makeshift cast. “Please respect my house rules and be fucking quiet!”

“Sorry,” Soonyoung mutters as he lets Jun tie his arm properly. “Thank you,” he says when he’s done. “And don’t worry, Jihoon won’t come here.”

“Because he thinks you’re dead?”

“Because he’s not a bad person.”

“You do realize he’s an assassin, like you,” Jun tells him while he pours Soonyoung a cup of water.

“Actually my assumptions were never confirmed,” Soonyoung watches Jun closely as his friend’s hand twitches lightly before he puts the water pitcher down. “Is there something you know that I don’t?”

Jun is quiet for a long moment before he comes up to Soonyoung, placing the cup in front of him, and sits down across the table. “Have you ever considered if you two meeting wasn’t an accident?”

“I always called it fate,” Soonyoung doesn’t mean it in a wistful way, it’s just the way he always thought about it.

“What if it was always the plan? Jihoon’s company sending him to Kyoto on the same day as you. It’s already weird enough as it is that two New York-based companies send agents overseas, but to the same location, over the same weekend?” Soonyoung’s heart starts hammering and he tries hide from Jun how much all of this is affecting him by taking a few large gulps of water. “Maybe he was sent there for you.” Soonyoung knows this is where the conversation was going but he still hates hearing it.

“You got something stronger than water?” He asks instead and Jun gets up to take out a bottle of whiskey placing it next to Soonyoung’s cup and Soonyoung pours himself a heap full chugging it whole in three big sips. When he looks up at Jun through burning eyes, Jun is already watching him back with slight concern. “So you think this is what? A six year stake out?”

“It could be,” Jun shrugs and Soonyoung pours himself another cup. “Maybe you should-“

“Maybe I should what?” Soonyoung tries not to be loud but he knows it’s not working with how Jun’s eyes glance briefly towards the ceiling, where his mother is sleeping upstairs. “He’s the love of my life, Jun, real, fake, planned, I don’t care,” Soonyoung watches the brown liquid tremble in his grip. “I really love him, you know?” He adds hating how weak his voice sounds and finishes the drink clean.

“Let’s go to bed, okay?” Jun lays a supportive hand on Soonyoung’s good shoulder. “We’ll talk about this more tomorrow.”

Soonyoung follows him to the living room and lays wordlessly onto the couch. The last thing he hears before he falls asleep to a pleasantly numbed mind is Jun telling his mother goodnight.

 

✗

 

When Jihoon wakes up to noises downstairs, his first reaction is to grab the gun taped to the underside of his bedside table while his second instinct is to cover Soonyoung with his arm until he realizes that Soonyoung isn’t next to him anymore and Jihoon unlocks his gun because the noises downstairs are probably that very same Soonyoung and his men.

Before he can get out of bed, there’s a knock on his door and Jihoon aims his gun at it.

“Jihoon? It’s Seungcheol,” Jihoon lets out a sigh and puts his gun down, turning safety back on. “Did you put the gun down? Can I come in?”

“Yeah,” Jihoon croaks out, voice still stuck in that morning crispiness. The door opens slightly and Jihoon narrows his eyes at Seungcheol eyeing him from the tiny space. “Just come in, dumbass,” he groans and falls back onto the pillows.

“How are you holding up?” Seungcheol asks carefully. When Jihoon doesn’t respond, Seungcheol comes closer to sit on Soonyoung’s side of the bed. “Got your car out of the lake early this morning, had to fix up some fences in the neighborhood as well. You two really went all out, huh?” Jihoon knows Seungcheol’s just trying to lighten up the situation but Jihoon is really not in the mood. Instead, he stares dumbly at the portrait of him and Soonyoung from their wedding day on top the cabinet across the room.

“There’s no way you could’ve known, Jihoon,” Cheol’s voice is soft. Kind. Jihoon doesn’t care.

“I should have,” he says lowly. “I should’ve known it the moment I saw him. The moment we first spoke. The moment we kissed. The moment he said I do and I  _stupidly_ ,” he grits out, “said I do back.”

“Jihoon-“ Before Seungcheol can finish what he wanted to say Jihoon has his gun off safety and he’s shooting straight at the wedding portrait, the loud bang making Seungcheol fall off the bad as the picture frame breaks into little pieces. “Jihoon, for fuck’s sake!” Seungcheol groans from behind the bed and Jihoon throws his feet off from the bed without replying to that.

“Did you figure out where he’s from?” He says instead. “What company? His real name?”

“Not too many Kwon Soonyoung’s in the states and we searched back in South Korea, too,” Seungcheol says still sitting on the floor. “His parents are real, same ones who came to your wedding. Moved to the suburbs of Seoul a few years back from Westchester where Soonyoung grew up.”

Jihoon starts rummaging through his room while Seungcheol speaks. He puts aside all the important things he wants to keep so that the agents won’t touch them when they look through the rest. “Got anything more interesting than that?” He grumbles out when Seungcheol hasn’t spoken for a whole minute.

“Probably works under another company,” Seungcheol says, finally getting up from the floor. “Might be one also based here in New York or elsewhere in the country…”

“Just say it,” Jihoon says throwing his laptop on top of his pile of stuff. “I know it’s eating you alive, come on, tell me you warned me all along.”

“I didn’t… I didn’t know.”

“ _Hoshi Enterprises_ ,” Jihoon looks over at Seungcheol who’s biting his lip raw. “What did you find about it?”

“On the surface it’s just a real estate company, like you thought,” Seungcheol’s phone beeps but he mutes it. “Other than that we don’t know,” he doesn’t meet his eyes when he says it and Jihoon’s eyes narrow.

“I know you’re much higher in the company than I am, but we’ve known each other for too long to let that get in the way of you being honest with me, right?” Jihoon watches Seungcheol intensely as he says it and sees Seungcheol gulp but not look up from his phone.

“Does Soonyoung work for us? Was I his mission?” Jihoon asks, trying to keep his voice strong. At the second question Seungcheol’s eyes finally meet his.

“He’s not in our system at all, but I’m assuming the second part is true.”

The breath Jihoon lets out is shaky and rough and he squeezes his fists so tightly he thinks he might draw blood. “After we’re done looking through here, we’re destroying my New York office,” Jihoon’s voice is flat and he ignores the concern look Seungcheol watches him with.

“You think he’ll go there?”

“If he wants answers, yes,” Jihoon opens his bathroom door. “Don’t forget to check the shed,” he suggests before going inside to take the coldest shower of his life. “He spent too much time in there and I never believed he’s actually interested in woodworking.”

 

✗

 

Soonyoung wakes up around noon regretting the two full cups of whiskey he drank before bed and not asking Jun to sleep in an actual bed over a couch especially with his bad shoulder. But he’s used to injuries, he thinks, and even though his arm is sore, after a few stretches he finds that he can move it well enough, tossing the makeshift cast aside.

He can hear rummaging in the kitchen and he’s about to go there but Jun walks into the living room before he can get off the couch.

“Good morning sleepyhead,” he smiles. “Mom’s making pancakes.” Soonyoung blinks. His life is falling apart but Jun’s mom is making pancakes… Maybe things aren’t so bad. Smells delicious, too, but Soonyoung really does have to take care of more pressing matters.

"I think I'm going back," Soonyoung says getting up, grabbing his hurt shoulder when it strains from the movement. “Thanks though.”

"Where are you going to go?"

"Home."

"And what? Talk it out?"

"For one, I'd love a shower," he rotates his shoulder and winces through the words. "I don't think he expects me home," he adds. "Catch your target red-handed, isn't that the motto?"

"The motto is not to marry someone who'll stake you out for six years, but you do you," Jun leans on the wall and watches Soonyoung put his shoes on.

"Thanks for letting me stay here," Soonyoung places a hand on Jun's shoulder as he walks out. He means it.

"You gonna kill the bitch?"

Soonyoung actually chuckles at that. "Your mom is in the next room, watch your language."

Jun doesn't crack a smile at that, it’s weird, probably means all this shit is too serious for that. Instead he looks like he wants to say something. Soonyoung is about to ask what but Jun speaks first, "If you need anything, let me know. Partners before anything else," he promises which makes Soonyoung frown.

"Of course, Jun," he nods, brow raising at the weird direction of their conversation. "Is there something you need to tell me?" He presses when Jun still looks nervous and he quickly shakes his head.

"I just hope you didn't drag any of your husband's agents over here," Jun frowns with a subtle shake of his head and Soonyoung doesn't totally believe him but he doesn't push it.

"I'm taking your car, by the way," he says going to the door. "Please."

"Sure, as long as you finally get Minghao's number for me."

Soonyoung chuckles as he opens the door and grabs the car keys hanging on the hook beside it. "He says he doesn't want your mom knocking on your door with post-sex munchies.”

"My mom's a good cook!" Jun yells after him as Soonyoung walks down the driveway. "He should appreciate it!"

"I'll let him know!" Soonyoung laughs and the air that fills his lungs from the simplicity of it all is pleasant when he doesn't know what's expecting him when he returns home.

By the time he rolls up to his house from the outside, everything seems fine. Nothing seems to have changed. But if Jihoon is anything like Soonyoung, inside is a whole other story. He parks across the street and notices a white van at the end of the road. Very subtle, Soonyoung thinks bitterly and instead of going to his house, he walks up to the Hongs instead.

It only takes about ten seconds for Joshua to open the door and smile pleasantly at him. "Oh! Soonyoung, what a pleasant surprise," he smiles sweetly and Soonyoung smiles cutely back.

"Listen, you got a toolbox or something? We had a leak the other day, I'd love it if you could come by and look at it."

Joshua blinks. "I do... but Jeonghan is your best bet for handiwork." Soonyoung almost groans. Just his luck. Can't the useful gay be home at this hour? "I can try, though? Gimme a sec."

Soonyoung nods, feeling lighter. Assassin companies are rooted in murder, but they don't murder innocent civilians. At least Soonyoung hopes Jihoon's company doesn't, otherwise this whole dragging Joshua with him is for nothing and Jeonghan has a scary underlying aura that Soonyoung doesn’t want to uncover if anything happens to his boyfriend.

They walk to his house, Joshua holding the toolbox in both hands talking about how he’s nervous about what to get Jeonghan for their three-year anniversary and Soonyoung wants to tell him as long as it’s not marriage anything is fine but he doesn’t want any invasive follow-up questions.

Soonyoung uses the key they store in the flower pot on the porch to unlock the door and the first thing he notices when they’re inside is that it’s empty. The first thing Joshua notices is the dark wood floors.

“This place is huge!” He marvels walking in after Soonyoung. “Did you guys buy this place?”

“Yeah,” Soonyoung replies distractedly as he looks around. It’s not that the furniture isn’t there, there are even some paintings still hanging on the wall, but anything personal about the house has disappeared. Soonyoung feels as if his entire life was unraveled and he wasn’t there to pick up the pieces they threw away.

“So what’s the plumbing issue?” Joshua asks blinking expectantly and Soonyoung looks at him slowly almost forgetting why he was even there in the first place.

“Kitchen, down the hall,” he tells him simply and heads outside through the back door down the hall towards his shed.

When he comes near the shed’s door is open, so it’s no surprise that when he’s inside he sees that the trap door is as well. He feels his heart hammer painfully in his chest. Out of  _all_ the things they could’ve taken… His weapon collection is something he’s been building since his first mission! He climbs the stairs down slowly, already expecting to see all the shelves empty, but when his expectations are confirmed he isn’t ready for how much it will affect him to see everything gone.

“You fucking asshole,” Soonyoung whispers, voice laced with pure venom, he punches the ceiling and feels his skin split at the knuckles and his eyes burn with fury.  

It takes him two minutes to kick a confused Joshua out of his house, get inside his car that’s still in the garage and dial Jun’s number after he presses gas.

“They took all my guns!” Soonyoung yells as soon as Jun picks up.

“What?”

“My whole collection, gone!”

“Even the M2605?”

“Yes!”

“Oh, shit… Soonyoung I am so sorry,” he sounds pretty genuine and Soonyoung relaxes a little.

“Yeah, me too,” he swerves lanes too quickly and the car wheels screech loudly against the road.

“Wait. Don’t tell me you’re going there…”

“Where else will I go? The asshole took everything from me! If he wants war, I’ll give him war!”

“You’re going alone?! Are you insane?!”

“He won’t hurt me.”

“Soonyoung, for fuck’s sake this is the person who convinced you to marry him within six weeks of knowing each other and lived with you for five years as a stake out!”

“Six years,” Soonyoung corrects under his breath despite the strange pang in his chest and Jun doesn’t seem to notice he said anything.

“Wait for some back up? I can come if you just give me a–“

“It’s fine, Jun. I’ll be fine. He and I need to talk, and we need to do it alone.” Before Jun can reply Soonyoung presses the call button on the wheel to hang up.

He feels his hands shake as he squeezes the leather of the wheel to stable himself. As he approached Jihoon’s office building he dials his husband’s phone and it’s a bit surprising that he answers on the third ring.

“Soonyoung,” Jihoon’s voice travels familiarly through the car’s speaker and Soonyoung sees black in the corner of his eyes.

“Jihoonie,” he bites back. “That wasn’t very mature of you. I want my things back.”

“Oh sweetie all that crap? It was garbage,” Soonyoung can hear the teasing smirk in Jihoon’s voice and hates it.

“Jihoon,” he grits out as he parks the car in the available spot around the corner. Quite rare for New York City but Soonyoung has a lot on his mind to be too excited over that. “Where did you put it all?”

“How about you come up here and see for yourself, Soonyoung-ah,” his voice is soft and velvety and they don’t speak Korean with each other but when Jihoon calls him endearingly like that… Soonyoung hangs up before he can get even more pissed and walks briskly over to Jihoon’s building. The guard is about to ask him something but the glare Soonyoung throws at him is enough to shut him up.

Jihoon’s office is on the top floor and when Soonyoung walks out of the elevator the room is empty and all the screens are red and blinking with a warning.

 

[MAIN DISK WIPE OUT 78% COMPLETE]

 

Soonyoung almost wants to roll his eyes. He kind of belatedly realizes he doesn’t actually care which organization Jihoon works at. As long as he gets his hands on Jihoon, he’s good. He has a gun hoisted in the back of his pants, an extra weapon he held in his glove box for when his husband raids his entire weapon stash.

Tentatively, he takes the gun out and keeps it ahead of him, aimed in case some of Jihoon’s minions are around as he walks through the office.

There are screens everywhere and Soonyoung has been here before but when he thought Jihoon was a music producer lots of screens with strange software doesn’t seem too strange. Now however, nothing is the same. Everything is strange. Everything is a lie.

“Jihoonie~” He says under his breath, gun unlocked and on the look-out. “You know I don’t like playing hide-and-seek.”

“You don’t?” There’s an answer immediately and Soonyoung swivels, gun aimed, at Jihoon sitting on an open window sill, his own gun propped casually on his knee. “I thought you did, or was that part of your cover?”

“Many things are part of my cover,” Soonyoung keeps his gun aimed and Jihoon watches him back, unimpressed. “I want my things back.”

“We can discuss that in our divorce papers,” Jihoon blinks lazily and Soonyoung grips the gun tighter. He knows this was coming for months now so why does the word divorce coming from Jihoon still hit him so hard?

“You really think this will end in a casual divorce?” Soonyoung’s voice is filled with anger and Jihoon smirks at its sound.

“Probably not. That was a pretty good collection, Soonyoung,” Jihoon’s grin widens. “Maybe I want to keep it.”

“Fucker!” Soonyoung shoots the window sill as a warning but Jihoon is quickly up on his feet, aiming one gun at him while his other arm shoots a different gun in the opposite direction. Soonyoung sees it’s a wire to the building across the street. An escape.

“Who are you Soonyoung?” Jihoon asks, eyes furious. Clearly he doesn’t like being shot at. Soonyoung doesn’t blame him.

“I'm Soonyoung Lee, who the fuck are you?!”

Jihoon blinks, surprised, but the expression turns quickly into a bitter smile as he falls backwards from the window. Soonyoung runs up to see his husband wire to the building across the street and land on an open balcony. He turns around to meet Soonyoung’s eyes even across all that space and Soonyoung, in a moment if foolish weakness, shows him the middle finger.

Jihoon actually smiles at that, showing all teeth.

“Chickenshit!” Soonyoung yells before that smile makes him feel some type of way.

“Pussy!” Jihoon yells back but he’s grinning and Soonyoung can’t look away even when Jihoon disappears inside the open balcony door.

When Soonyoung finally turns away the computers are all completely wiped out and he feels stupidly empty handed. Jihoon announced a divorce then he escaped and Soonyoung still doesn’t know where all of his stuff is or where Jihoon really came from.

He looks through stray pieces of paper around the office, there is a trash bin burning in the corner of the room and Soonyoung grabs a fire extinguisher nearby to take out the fire before it burns all leftover evidence. Among the foam, Soonyoung finds some half burnt piece of paper in the debris. There is a name of a company in the corner of one of the papers and it’s half burnt but Soonyoung has worked at that same company for over ten years so it’s not hard to figure out the star logo that hasn’t burnt off yet.

 _Hoshi Enterprises_ , Soonyoung swallows.

He dials Jun immediately.

“Thank god,” Jun says as soon as he picks up. “What the fuck were you thinking?”

“Just listen, Jun,” Soonyoung tries to clean off the paper as much as possible to get any other information. He sees it’s a contracting paper and realizes it’s from a construction site which is even more strange because Jihoon works at a music company so why would he need something like that.

“You were right,” Soonyoung crumples the paper in his hand. “I’m a six year stake out and I think I know where he wants me to go.”

 _Hoshi Enterprises_ has a new building project Downtown. Soonyoung actually knows it pretty well. It was Minhyuk’s project before he strangely passed away and it became Soonyoung’s responsibility for the past few weeks.

Minhyuk’s death isn’t really a coincidence now that Soonyoung thinks about it. He tries to remember the night it happened, he was on his own mission that night – a club, poker, the dinner he rushed to make when the target was killed. Did Jihoon also escape that evening? Or did someone else from his company take care of Minhyuk? Soonyoung did notice some stockings neither have them have used in years on the floor of the closet and he assumed maybe Jihoon was finally going to invite something interesting back into their bedroom but nothing happened and Soonyoung dismissed the thought.

In a split of a second, Soonyoung recalls how many gross comments Minhyuk used to make about wanting Soonyoung to bring his cute petite husband to work events so he could finally meet him and he almost crashes the car from his anger. How blind was he that everything makes so much sense now?

As soon as he reaches the construction site he spots a Taco food truck down the street that he has never seen before.

“Hey Jihoonie,” he mutters under his breath and grabs his construction hat that he keeps in his trunk before he heads towards the building, waving hi to some familiar faces. “Sam!” He calls out to the head builder. “Call everyone to lunch, will you? I need to check some things and I’d like for it to be quiet.” Not exactly true, but Soonyoung thinks if the situation turns into a mess he’d rather have all the workers as far away as possible. Sam’s not unfamiliar with  _Hoshi Enterprises_ side jobs and nods seriously. When Soonyoung enters the building he can hear Sam gathering workers for their break.

 

✗

 

“He’s in,” Seungcheol says and Jihoon can see for himself Soonyoung entering the elevator from the monitor in front of him.

“Stop him on the seventeenth floor,” Jihoon tells the agent and the agent looks strangely at Jihoon but doesn’t refuse. The elevator stops as soon as it's past the seventeenth floor and Soonyoung doesn’t look phased whatsoever, smoothly turning his neck to look at the camera.

He looks away just as smoothly and presses the call button to alert a team. Jihoon clears his throat over their built-in mic and speaks after the ringing.

“There seems to have been a malfunction with your elevator, sir,” he says, the speaker changing his voice into an unfamiliar tone. “We’re sending up an engineer to deal with the problem.”

“That’s alright,” Soonyoung replies rolling his neck. “I’m really quite comfortable.”

“Are you _really_ comfortable?” Jihoon asks, finding it hard not to smirk despite the situation.

“Jihoon,” Soonyoung turns around to look at the camera again. “Is that you, honey?”

Jihoon smiles wider. Atta boy.

“First and last warning, Soonyoung,” he says still smiling, one of the agents returning his voice over the intercom to normal. “Get out of town.”

Soonyoung takes a step closer to the camera and lays his hands on the wall as if trying to crowd Jihoon through the cam. “You know I'm not going anywhere, sweetheart.”

“Well, so you say. But right now you’re trapped in a steel box with a seventeen floor drop.”

“Seventeen,” Soonyoung’s smile on the video is grainy but to Jihoon it’s clear as day. “You’ve always been a hidden romantic.”

Jihoon ignores Seungcheol shoot him a look and forces himself to focus on Soonyoung and Soonyoung only. Nothing wrong with keeping things traditional, he asked him to marry him on the seventeenth of March and they got married on the seventeenth of May, two months later. For old time's sake.

Soonyoung leans closer to the camera while Jihoon stays silent. “So is this a trap? Let me guess, there’s a base charge on the right and left cables and an extra one a bit higher to the left?”

“He found them,” Seungcheol whispers when something on his screen goes red.

“Yeah, thanks,” Jihoon grits out to him, then back at Soonyoung. “Did you get the one on the principle cable?”

“I did,” Soonyoung’s smile shows a bit of teeth.

“There were two,” Jihoon says and Soonyoung’s smile flinches.

“Soonyoung, I’m warning you one last time. Leave town or I blow it.”

Soonyoung stares at the camera for almost a whole minute before he pushes away, hands raised. “I give up.  _Blow it_.”

Jihoon’s heart starts thudding in his chest. Why does he keep testing him? “You think I won’t?”

“I think you won’t,” Soonyoung pauses waiting for a reply before he makes a come here motion with his fingers. “Come on. Do it.”

“Okay,” Jihoon says finally, trying to make his voice sound as calm as possible. He notices Seungcheol look over his shoulder at him but he doesn’t say anything. “Five, four,” Jihoon starts counting. “Any last words?”

“You should quit smoking,” Soonyoung says with his familiar teasing smile.

“Goodbye, Soonyoung,” Jihoon tells him and Soonyoung smiles about to say something else when the camera shuts off and there’s a huge explosion outside.

Jihoon grabs the screen staring at the gray static. “What the fuck just happened?!” He yells at Seungcheol. Seungcheol just blinks at him and another agent pipes up instead.

“You said goodbye?”

Jihoon runs out to check on the crash, he finds some construction workers coughing saying how lucky it is that they’re all are on lunch break and Jihoon can do nothing but stare dumbly at the smoke coming out from the broken elevator shaft.

He turns around to find Seungcheol right behind him who shakes his head and Jihoon looks back at the smoke again blinking his eyes as if it’s the dust that’s making his eyes irritated and not a certain husband. A certain dead husband. Fuck.

Without another word Jihoon pushes his way back into the truck and grabs his stuff before he leaves.

“Jihoon,” Seungcheol tries to stop him but Jihoon pushes him aside, already lighting a cigarette despite Soonyoung’s last words.

“Nothing left to say,” he snaps at him. “It’s over.”

The rest of the day is a blur. Jihoon guesses this is what loss feels like. Emptiness. A huge chunk of himself lost somewhere in the span of time. He doesn’t know how it could disappear so quickly especially when he was so sure that part of him, the one that relied so much on Soonyoung, was already gone.

Isn’t this what he wanted, though? This is what he wanted, right? No more Soonyoung. No more husband. No more Mr. and Mr. Lee. It helps that this husband wasn’t really the man he thought he was… At least he thinks it does. Maybe that’s why Jihoon doesn’t feel miserable. Just empty. He didn’t lose anything that afternoon, all of that was already lost long ago

In the evening he finds himself at the restaurant where he proposed to Soonyoung six years ago. There’s the same champagne in his glass and the same leather menu on the table.

Nothing changed.

Except maybe Soonyoung. There’s none of him now.

Right.

He feels something trickle down his chin and he wipes it off with the twitch of his thumb and takes a sip of the expensive bubbling wine, feeling it fizz down his throat.

Champagne is for celebrating. And that’s what he’s doing. Celebrating his victory of getting rid of the black stain that hindered his life. This is what he wanted, so why is he trying so hard to convince himself?

He’s lowering his glass back onto the table when the waiter grabs his hand over the champagne flute and lifts the champagne bottle to refill his glass. There’s a feeling of calluses on top of his knuckles that is strangely familiar even after so long, and any emptiness that Jihoon felt is filled as quickly as the champagne glass, bubbling within him that he can’t help but laugh.

“Sir,” Soonyoung’s voice is warm by his ear, like silk covering him smoothly from head to toe. Jihoon can’t help but smile as he looks up at him. “Thought of a number of things to say right now,” Soonyoung is grinning, but his eyes are cold. “Wonderful to see you,” he lists. “Hey, doll, thanks for taking care of my shaft.” Jihoon narrows his eyes at that one and his smile dims.

“What did you come up with?”

Soonyoung sits down on the chair opposite him. “I want a divorce.”

Jihoon tilts his head, lips pressing against each other for a moment. “I already asked for that.”

“Oh, I see. So only you’re allowed to ask the big questions in this relationship. Like asking me to get married or deciding if I get to live.”

“You told me to blow it,” Jihoon points out and Soonyoung tilts his head questioningly.

“I’ve told you to blow it many times before but I guess you aren’t willing to unless my life is on the line.”   

Jihoon nods. “Very mature.” Soonyoung smiles and lays a hand over his lap making sure Jihoon hears the unlocking of his gun. “What do you want, Soonyoung?”

“You see, my dear Jihoonie,” Soonyoung’s smile is a dangerous thing. Sweet and innocent but the eyes are piercing and deadly and Jihoon knows his fingers would be quick on the trigger if needed. “You obviously want me dead and I’m no longer concerned about your own wellbeing.” Jihoon takes a sip of his champagne and doesn’t break eye contact. “So what do we do? Shoot it out here? Hope for the best?”

Jihoon shrugs as he takes a sip. “That would be a shame,” he says putting the glass down and tapping the side of his jacket pointedly so Soonyoung knows he’s not the only one armed. “They’ll probably ask me to leave once you’re dead.”

“Funny!” Soonyoung’s smile is wide as he leans forward, eyes sparkling now with something more than just anger and Jihoon can’t help but smile back. “Dance with me,” Soonyoung says suddenly, smile dimming but eyes still sporting that charming shine.

Jihoon looks at him strangely for a moment. “You don’t dance,” he says but Soonyoung is already getting up swiftly placing his gun in the back of his pants.

“Part of my cover, sweetheart,” he offers Jihoon his hand and Jihoon stares at it for a split second before he takes it and lets Soonyoung walk them to the dance floor.

The restaurant has a small ballroom dance floor. It’s classy. It’s expensive. It’s beautiful. Six years ago Jihoon knelt down in front of Soonyoung on this same floor and asked him to marry him and Soonyoung agreed whispering in his ear for the rest of the evening about how he badly he wanted to be the one to ask first.

Now there’s no giddy happiness or being in love. It’s two guns hidden in the back of their pants, two pairs of eyes looking for any opportunity to get their target, and Soonyoung’s hand squeezing Jihoon’s fingers pettily until Jihoon has no choice but to kick him in the shin.

Soonyoung pulls him towards himself harshly and Jihoon grabs his bicep a bit too tightly and they start dancing swiftly to the waltz in tandem with the dancers around them.

“So you  _can_ dance,” Jihoon can’t help but be a little impressed.

“I’m good at many things.”

“Like lying about who you really are.”

“You’re one to speak.” Jihoon doesn’t say anything but only smiles. “You think this is going to end well?” Soonyoung asks, looking down at him with a strange expression until he smiles as if reminding himself to keep up facade. Jihoon hates this smile. The plasticity of it. There’s nothing Soonyoung about it.

“Everything has the same ending anyway, so what does it matter?” Jihoon tells him and Soonyoung blinks slowly.

“What a typical Jihoon thing to say,” he mutters in under his breath, voice laced in frustration, and walks Jihoon backwards until they hit a wall and Jihoon feels glass crack against his back from the impact. Soonyoung then pulls him towards him and keeps dancing as if nothing happened. The harsh way he’s grabbing Jihoon though… He’s probably really pissed about the whole almost blowing him up earlier. Soonyoung is never too pleasant to be around when mad.

Before Jihoon can muster something else clever to say, Soonyoung is twirling him around and tilting him backwards, down towards the floor. Jihoon almost stops breathing from how close their noses are when Soonyoung bends towards him, but the feeling is gone when he senses Soonyoung’s hand that’s not supporting his waist on his body, looking for a weapon. The hand roams slowly around his waist, back, up and down his thigh, until it goes up and all around his chest.

“Satisfied?” Jihoon whispers and Soonyoung’s eyes snap to his for a second. He keeps them there as he takes out the gun from Jihoon’s inner pocket and stuffs it in the back of his pants next to his weapon that’s already there.

“Not for years,” he whispers back before straightening them out. Jihoon’s thigh is still in his hand so he tears it away to plant both feet on the ground and thinks a little bitterly that it’s not really fair for Soonyoung to have two guns no matter how angry Soonyoung has the right to be.

Jihoon’s hands go to his behind immediately and feel for the guns not before traveling across his ass and Soonyoung smirks at him as he does so. “I know you miss my ass,” he says teasingly. ”Should have thought of that before almost blowing me to pieces.” Jihoon tries hard not to roll his eyes before he takes out both guns, crouches to the ground and slides them across the floor to opposite sides of the ballroom. He can hear Soonyoung make a frustrated sound above him as he grabs Jihoon’s hands to pull him up harshly.

“Why is it you think we failed?” Jihoon asks when they are dancing again. “Was it the lying? Because we were never honest about who we really were?”

“I have an idea. It’s new,” Soonyoung admits, voice close to Jihoon’s temple where it comes out in warm puffs and Jihoon hates how strongly the close rumble of Soonyoung’s voice affects him. God, he misses him. He closes his eyes for a second to avoid looking at him and feels Soonyoung’s fingers run smoothly down his cheek before he speaks. “ _You_ killed us.”

Jihoon opens his eyes, smiling up at Soonyoung. “Please, elaborate.”

“You approached our marriage like a job. Something to plan and execute,” he pauses his forefinger stopping by the freckle under Jihoon’s eye before the hand drops back onto his waist. “Not every marriage needs a change of curtains every other year.”

“Better than not taking care of it at all,” Jihoon shoots back.

“What do you care?” Soonyoung’s head tilts as he twirls them around. “I was just a cover wasn’t I?”

“Who said you were just a cover?” Jihoon whispers.

Soonyoung’s eyes narrow. “Wasn’t I?”

“ _Wasn’t I_?” Jihoon shoots back. They both seem confused at each other’s questions and Jihoon is too terrified to think too hard about it.

 _Don’t fall for it. Don’t trust him,_ he hears Seungcheol’s voice in his head.  _There was no accidental meeting, he always knew who you were._

Jihoon stops abruptly in the middle of the dance floor. “I have to go,” he says, running his hands down Soonyoung’s chest before he leaves. “Excuse me,” he mumbles as he tries to walk through the crowd. There’s a bathroom on top of the staircase, he remembers it from six years ago when he and Soonyoung decided to have a little celebratory action. He looks back down at Soonyoung to see him already watching him, as if he’s trying with his gaze alone to figure all of him out. Before he can change his mind, Jihoon disappears around the corner. He doesn’t know what to think of that conversation or Soonyoung’s tormented eyes and he knows he doesn’t want to think too hard about it anyway. He has a small vile in his pocket that he throws onto the floor watching it blow up in smoke and when the panicked crowd disperses he disappears along with them.

 

✗

 

Jihoon isn’t even gone for a minute before the crowd runs down the stairs screaming fire.

“Fuck,” Soonyoung curses looking around him trying to find Jihoon among the running people and cursing that he married such a tiny man. Next to the entrance he briefly sees Jihoon looking over his shoulder and Soonyoung thinks a little bitterly that his size is irrelevant. If Jihoon wants to be seen, he will be.

Soonyoung pushes through the crowd to get to the exit himself but out on the street there are even more people and Jihoon is nowhere in sight.

“Excuse me,” someone shakes Soonyoung and he rips his arm out of their grip. “You’re ticking!” The man yells and Soonyoung shoots him a glare when he realizes his jacket is indeed counting down and he yells quickly for everyone around him to move before he takes off the jacket and throws it into a trashcan and shuts it with the lid before his jacket blows. That turns his surroundings into even bigger chaos and he curses Jihoon profusely in his head as he pushes through the people to get out of the crowd.

His car is parked a few streets away and he dials Jihoon as soon as he gets in.

Jihoon answers on the first ring and the smile in his voice is palpable. “Hello, honey.”

“That’s the second time you tried to blow me,” Soonyoung tells him.

“I thought you said you were into that.” Soonyoung hates how cocky he sounds.

“Then where has this enthusiasm been for the last five years?”

“Six,” Jihoon bites out and hangs up.

Soonyoung smirks loving how despite Jihoon’s smug aura such simple things can easily irk him. He calls back.

 

✗

 

Jihoon groans at Soonyoung’s caller ID on the small screen in his car. He licks his lips and decides to answer even though his mind is screaming at him to just let him go. “You there yet?” Jihoon he asks before Soonyoung can speak and is surprised to hear his husband’s laugh over the receiver.

“I was wondering,” Soonyoung says instead of a reply. “First time we met, what was your first thought?” Jihoon doesn’t say anything. He doesn't really know how to answer that. It has been a while since he has thought of Kyoto with anything other than regret. “I thought,” Soonyoung starts first, pausing to collect his words. “I thought you looked like Christmas morning. I don’t know how else to say it. You were perfect. Like Santa crafted you just for me.” Jihoon can’t help but let out a sharp laugh at that, heart fluttering unfamiliarly in his chest.

“Why are you telling me this now?” He asks, voice quiet and soft and Soonyoung takes a few seconds to respond.

“I guess in the end you start thinking about the beginning,” he says in that wistful voice of his and Jihoon’s grip on his wheel tightens. “So, Jihoonie, tell me.”

Jihoon watches the road, but his mind is elsewhere. He recalls seeing Soonyoung first time in warring Kyoto and having his sharp eyes land on him and mouth split in a beautiful smile as if Jihoon really was some present underneath his Christmas tree. He remembers his charming personality and his cute laugh and the way he kissed him under the rain like it didn’t matter that there was still blood washing off from the streets around them. He remembers falling in love in just weeks and asking him to marry him in the middle of a crowded dance floor and having Soonyoung’s eyes narrow on him as he asks dares he propose first.

His knuckles are white from how hard he squeezes the wheel. He just wants it all back. There’s a reason he paid all that money for the therapists and awkward meetings but now, with the truth that’s slowly unraveling, maybe there really is no hope for them. “I thought you were the most beautiful mark I’ve ever seen,” he says finally and can hear Soonyoung let out a short breath over the speakerphone.

“Thank you,” Soonyoung says quietly. “That’s all I needed to know.”

“Okay.”  _Why is he doing this?_ He turns onto their street and sees the house in the distance and almost wants to tell Soonyoung that he takes it all back.

“Okay,” Soonyoung says before hanging up and Jihoon is rolling onto their driveway when a car crashes into him from the side. Jihoon looks over in shock and sees Soonyoung smiling behind the wheel.

“Bitch!” Jihoon yells and presses gas to go forward and reverse back into Soonyoung before gunning for the garage.

“Asshole!” He hears Soonyoung behind him but he doesn’t really care, focused on getting inside the house before Soonyoung can.

If he has already gotten this far, he thinks as he grabs the extra weapons he hid in the garage, he has to go all the way.

 

✗

 

Soonyoung watches the garage close with Jihoon’s car inside and he grunts out a few curse words before getting out of the car leaving it practically in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Soonyoung!” He hears behind him and turns around to see Josh walking his dog.

“Hey Josh!” Soonyoung yells, watching the kitchen light turn on. Fuck his hands feel empty! He starts running towards the house but Josh doesn't get the hint.

“Your car is hanging off the sidewalk!”

“Yeah, thanks Josh!” Soonyoung yells over his shoulder as he reaches the shed and Josh is peaking through the bushes to see him.

“Well, goodnight Soonyoung!” He calls out when he finally realizes Soonyoung isn’t interested in talking and Soonyoung just waves hearing Josh’s dog bark a few times as they walk away.

Soonyoung peaks out around the corner of his shed and the light in the house is off again but the entrance door opens and Jihoon peaks out with a whole fucking shotgun and Soonyoung mutters another string of curse words.

Shotgun? Seriously? How fucking dead does he want him?

When the door closes and Jihoon disappears inside Soonyoung runs in a crouch to the side of the house. His shed armory is totally gone but he keeps a handgun in the office downstairs and he sincerely hopes Jihoon’s agents were dumb enough to believe that his Shinee poster isn’t hiding any weaponry behind it.

He’s outside the office window and when he looks in through the window and finds the corridor light on but the office is thankfully empty. He picks up a rock and breaks the window and when he doesn’t hear any noise he reaches in to unlock the window from the inside and push it open.

The Shinee poster is right by the window and Soonyoung tears it off muttering a tiny apology to Taemin and unlocks the safe to find a lone handgun inside and two charges of bullets and even a silencer. Not too bad but still not ideal when Jihoon is armed with a whole ass shotgun.

Once the gun is armed and unlocked he walks slowly out of the office trying to hear for any noise. The thing about Jihoon is not only he tiny, but stealthy too. The guy won’t be heard unless he absolutely wants to be.

Soonyoung walks carefully out into the corridor, he can see the entrance door and no Jihoon in sight. There’s a frame he grabs on the way, he briefly glances at it and it’s a fucking wedding photo. Ironic when the gun in his hand is meant to shoot his husband.

When he reaches the corner he takes out the frame slowly and checks surroundings and surely there is Jihoon already aiming at him with his massive shotgun.

_Fu-_

The gun is fired before Soonyoung can finish the curse in his head and he crouches down ignoring the rubble that falls on his head. There’s silence and Soonyoung feels a little offended that Jihoon thought he could get him in just one shot.

“You still alive, baby?” Jihoon speaks as if on cue and Soonyoung rolls his eyes. Then, thinking he’ll give him what he wants, he pretends to drop his gun.

“Gruufhh,” he grunts impressed at how convincing he sounds and doesn’t wait for a response before he quickly gets up, shooting Jihoon through the hole his shotgun made earlier. He hears Jihoon roll out of the way and Soonyoung is already running when the shotgun fires towards where he was seated just a moment ago.

Damn. He keeps not truly realizing just how serious Jihoon is about killing him. He keeps getting lucky, but that shotgun is no joke and neither is Jihoon’s aim. He needs to take this just as seriously if he wants to escape all this alive.

Soonyoung races down the hallway and through the office to get to the other side of the house. He’s in the living room with the ugly curtains now and he almost wants to shoot them just out of spite but remembers he needs to save as many bullets as possible.

He hears something behind him and starts running quicker but his sharp movement has him knocking into a shelf and he watches in horror as some vase he’s never seen before tumbles down onto the floor and Soonyoung, despite his reflexes, is too slow to get it in time.

As soon as the vase shatters he’s already running in the opposite direction and the spot where he was standing is predictably and masterfully shot at. The shots continue to chase him as he runs down the hallway until he reaches the living room again, jumping over the couch to hide there and watching the wall in front of him get brutally riddled with holes.

Jihoon is no joke, what the fuck. What the actual fuck. Who the fuck is this guy?!

Soonyoung grips his gun tighter and waits a few seconds before coming up from behind the couch and shooting at Jihoon who is fearlessly in the middle of the living room and – holy shit?! Is that _two_ shotguns?

“You psychopath!” Soonyoung yells out when the room explodes with feathers from the destroyed cushions and Soonyoung’s ears ring from the deafening echoes of all the shots fired. Soonyoung races towards the bookcase in the corner of the room and topples it over at Jihoon just as Jihoon’s shotgun runs out of bullets.

Good thing he has a second one, right? Soonyoung wants to cry.

The next room is the kitchen. Soonyoung grabs the knife stand before hiding behind the island counter and when the wall in front of him is shot at he gets up and throws three knives all at once.

“Your aim sucks!” Jihoon yells and Soonyoung is about to yell back when one of the knives is thrown back at him and Soonyoung ducks almost too late that he’s pretty sure some of his hair got sniped in the process.

“Yours too, sweetheart. Just like your cooking!” Soonyoung yells and the kitchen island explodes behind him, the expensive marble shattered from the impact when Jihoon tries shooting at him. “Still waiting for my first scratch!” Soonyoung yells again crawling bellow the stove and when Jihoon shoots towards the sound of his voice, Soonyoung sprints away from the gas plate and into the hallway watching the kitchen explode in flames and Jihoon grunting loudly from down the corridor.

While Jihoon coughs from the smoke, Soonyoung is already kicking him powerfully making Jihoon fall sideways as his eyes continue to water from the explosion. The sprinklers start working from the mild fire and they both ignore their getting wet as they start using fists and kicks instead of their guns and Jihoon might be small but he’s fucking strong and Soonyoung is the first one to fall to the ground, Jihoon kicking him in the stomach repetitively until Soonyoung grabs his foot and pulls him down.

Jihoon falls, his knee hitting Soonyoung hard on the stomach, but Soonyoung is quick to respond and head butts him so hard that Jihoon falls back grunting. Soonyoung grabs his arm to twist it around as he settles on Jihoon’s back, gabbing his head by his hair and slamming it into the floor.

“Fucker,” Jihoon grits out and Soonyoung does it again not noticing that Jihoon reaches for some statuette that had fallen earlier and hits Soonyoung’s head with it. Hard.

When Jihoon is free again he tries to go for his fallen shotgun but Soonyoung grabs the back of his shirt just in time, despite the one of his eyes covered with gushing blood. He pulls Jihoon towards himself and raises a foot to kick Jihoon’s spine so hard his small body slams into the wall and he almost slides down, unable to keep himself up anymore. His hands on the wall are the only things holding him up, fingers spread, and palms pressing so he won’t collapse and when he turns around he’s clearly pissed out of his mind, his entire face smudged with blood and water from the sprinklers

“Come on, sweetheart,” Soonyoung smirks, even though he can barely keep himself straight anymore either. “Come to daddy.”

Jihoon’s eyes narrow and he pushes himself off the wall to first kick Soonyoung in the balls then push him with both hands and spin around to kick him on the the back. Hard. Soonyoung falls to the ground unable to stay standing.

“Who’s your daddy now?” Jihoon says and Soonyoung rolls over onto his back, pushing himself up with whatever strength he has left despite his head pounding and his balls burning and every cell in his body begging him to just lay back down and close with his eyes. But he can't when there's Jihoon in front of him, his fists squeezed and ready. So he gets up. He gets up because he doesn’t give up, even with this shitty marriage he still hasn’t give up and he won’t and so that’s how it continues. Weak fists and neither of them backing down. Fuck, Soonyoung thinks they can continue like this forever despite their knuckles bleeding and both of them barely breathing, because Jihoon’s face is bloody and his eyes shine bright through the whole mess and Soonyoung is so mesmerized by the view he feels hypnotized. He just can’t stop.

Jihoon seems to still be thinking of the endgame because he has discretely lead their fight to where they had dropped their guns earlier and even glances towards his dear shotgun before slapping Soonyoung with the back of his hand and Soonyoung, no matter how exhausted, knows quickly to reach for his own gun at the same time.

When he turns around it’s no surprise that he sees the massive shotgun first. Behind it, Jihoon is smirking clearly unimpressed with Soonyoung’s much smaller gun with the flimsy silencer on its tip.

They’re both breathing heavily, staring at each other while their guns have their own stare off between them.

“The finale,” Soonyoung whispers because his voice is strained and he really has no more strength left to fight. Is this how he goes, he wonders watching Jihoon’s sharp shining eyes meet his and there’s so much feeling in them… So much wrath. Is that really how Soonyoung makes him feel? After five or six fucking years, to be met with Jihoon’s eyes like this in what seems like his last seconds of his life and for them to be filled with so much emotion…

When Jihoon’s mouth starts shaking Soonyoung realizes there’s more to his stare than anger. There’s passion beyond his fury and Soonyoung recalls he’s seen this look before. He’s seen it when they first met. When they first kissed under the warm Kyoto rain. When they said each other’s vows at their wedding and Jihoon pulled him down by his neck to officially seal the deal. When they are in bed together, hot breaths mingling and sweat and warmth and skin connected everywhere. When Jihoon brings Soonyoung’s favorite carrot cake to bed every morning on June 15th and smiles as he kisses the cheese cream icing off his nose.

Soonyoung drops his arm and Jihoon lets out a silent gasp but otherwise doesn't move.

“I can’t do it,” Soonyoung says simply and whatever familiar emotion he saw in Jihoon’s eyes turns back into anger.

“DON’T!” He shouts, lips spitting water from the sprinklers still pounding from the ceiling and he shakes his gun for emphasis. “Don’t you dare back down on me now! Coward! Raise your gun and aim! Come on!” He’s yelling but his eyes can’t even meet Soonyoung’s anymore.

“You want it?” Soonyoung asks calmly, letting go of his gun and it drops noisily onto their parqueted floor. “It’s yours. You win. Complete your mission.” Soonyoung smiles softly as he says it and Jihoon’s eyes widen and his mouth and hands shake as he stares back at him.

It’s weird, Soonyoung realizes, looking at someone you thought you didn’t love anymore and understanding just how much you  _do._ Maybe that’s why everything hurt so much up until now. When he thought he had outgrown his love but really he was just desperate to have it back. When all this time Jihoon was so close and yet so far and Soonyoung didn’t know how to grasp him until right now when he’s right there in front of his eyes… It doesn’t matter anymore that Soonyoung’s body is covered with bruises and Jihoon has tried to kill him more in that one day than Soonyoung can even count, because looking at Jihoon’s shining gaze and realizing how much it all doesn’t matter if it’s finished by Jihoon’s hand makes everything in his last breaths seem worth it.

“I can’t-“ Jihoon’s voice breaks through Soonyoung’s thoughts and Soonyoung can see the resolve in his husband's eyes cracking in almost slow motion. “I can’t do it,” Jihoon whispers, his voice is wet and broken and before Jihoon can drop the gun, Soonyoung is pushing the shotgun away himself to reach for Jihoon first and kiss him and kiss him and kiss him and thinking never in his life will he ever let go again.

Jihoon’s hands go up to grab his face and he kisses him back open mouthed and hot and they’re both wet from the sprinklers and it’s a reminder of their first kiss five – six – years ago and Soonyoung can’t help but smile while Jihoon peppers his lips with short quick kisses before their tongues connect again. They're both pushing against each other but there’s no hostility there anymore. Just lust and strange twisted love and so much regret. As soon as the thought run alongs Soonyoung’s mind, Jihoon bites Soonyoung’s lip hard enough to draw blood and Soonyoung thinks that okay, maybe there is some aggression there but at least they don’t want each other dead anymore.

He pulls Jihoon’s hair in response and Jihoon smiles into it snaking his arms around Soonyoung neck to pull him even closer so that there’s no space between them at all especially with how Jihoon’s leg wraps around his thigh to press against him. There’s definitely some blood between their kisses but they’re both covered in bruises and cuts and sprinkler water so what’s a little more mess at this point? He bends quickly to grab Jihoon by the back of his thighs and pull him up and feels Jihoon’s ankles lock at the small of his back as Soonyoung pushes forward to crash Jihoon against the wall to hold him close as he kisses him roughly against it.

It’s unfamiliar to how things used to be, yet it’s also just the same. The constant balance between intense and gentle. The thin line between love and hate. Between soft moans in his ear and the loudness when it hits just right. The tender kisses underneath the chin and nails digging into his shoulders. It’s rough and it’s passionate and it’s how they’ve always been whether individually or together and Soonyoung knows he’s pressing hard but Jihoon is receiving well and Soonyoung thinks if Jihoon was irresistible when they first met he doesn’t know how he’ll deal with this Jihoon open of all the secrets and laid out just for him.

“You’ve always liked it rough, didn’t you?” Soonyoung murmurs between kisses when Jihoon won’t stop making noises. “Now I know why.”

“God, shut your fucking mouth,” Jihoon grits out as he pushes his hips forward and detaches his arms from Soonyoung’s neck to unbuckle his pants.

“Excited?” Soonyoung smirks, holding Jihoon with one free hand while the other one rips his buttoned shirt off to reveal the smooth milky chest and Jihoon rolls his eyes as he starts palming Soonyoung through the pants because he gave up on the belt buckle.

“Unlike some people I didn’t cheat so I’ve actually been dry as fuck for a very long time,” he grabs Soonyoung tight and Soonyoung lets out a groan, pressing his forehead into the juncture between Jihoon’s neck and shoulder, his teeth grazing Jihoon’s collarbone. He can’t help push his hips into Jihoon’s hand and Jihoon squeezes and tugs so expertly. He’s always been good at this.

“I never cheated,” he says between hot puffs of air.

“You don’t need to lie to me,” Soonyoung can hear the eye roll in his voice. “I’ve seen the lipstick stains.”

Soonyoung lifts his head to look at Jihoon. “I’m hard to resist,” he says with a smirk and kisses Jihoon wetly. “But I never cheated on you.”

“Hmmpfh,” Jihoon lets out but there’s a new bright blush on the top of his cheeks and he kisses him back arms coming back up and his hips pushing against Soonyoung’s hardness instead. “Then we’re both excited,” he mutters between more kisses and Soonyoung nods and grins as he grabs Jihoon tighter pulling him close, close enough that he hopes it’s enough to keep Jihoon from ever slipping away.

 

✗

 

Jihoon wakes up groggy, sore, with the sun shining painfully into his eyes. He's back in his bed and this time not alone and as soon as he hears Soonyoung's tiny snores the whole of last night comes back to focus.

The elevator. The restaurant. The chase. That damn fight. The make-up sex. Jeonghan and Joshua coming by with police because they thought they heard ‘commotion’. Jihoon answering the door with just a towel around his waist. Apologies from the interrupters. Jihoon going back upstairs for more make up sex.

He rolls over to look at Soonyoung and feels his entire body ache from the inside out. Soonyoung is sleeping peacefully by his side and the familiarity of seeing him there and not wanting him gone is sure something to get used to but Jihoon doesn’t mind. Soonyoung has one hand on his bare stomach, fingers hiding beneath his shirt, while his other arm is over his eyes to shield from the sunlight and Jihoon in his rekindled neediness reaches out and puts his own cold palm on Soonyoung's tummy and starts caressing it softly watching Soonyoung stir with a soft moan.

"Jihoonie," he mutters bending his knees and twisting his body away Jihoon. "Take it off," he bends as if to escape Jihoon's touch. "You're freezing."

"Sleepy head," Jihoon smiles, moving closer to Soonyoung and kissing him open mouthed on the neck, right below his jaw. "It's been years, cook breakfast for me?"

Soonyoung's arm comes down and he looks at Jihoon over his shoulder, one eye open before he turns around onto his back and stares at him wordlessly. It really has been years since they woke up in bed somewhat peacefully. Soonyoung used to make omelets for breakfast with chopped salad and even some muesli to share but it's been ages and there was no motivation to do it when the two were barely talking.

But things are different now, Jihoon thinks, if last night worked. He runs a finger along Soonyoung’s bruises and cuts that cover his body, and it’s slightly comforting that it's hard to tell which are from the fight and which are from the aftermath.

"Let's shower first, okay?" Soonyoung mumbles, fingers brushing against the scab on Jihoon's forehead. "You're covered in blood." Jihoon smiles as if all of this is some hilarious joke and sits up pulling Soonyoung's hand so he sits up with him.

They shower together and laugh how they both can barely move. They really did take it too far and Jihoon loses count of the number of bruises that cover Soonyoung’s torso when he peppers kisses atop of them while Soonyoung takes Jihoon’s hand gently into his and leaves open mouthed kisses on each of Jihoon's red and bloody knuckles from all the fist fighting they did.

"You’re a good fighter," Soonyoung says when they're walking hand in hand down the stairs to the kitchen and Jihoon kisses his shoulder as a thank you for the compliment. Their whole house is ruined and it's a little upsetting when they consider that it cost them millions to build it in the first place but as gruesome as it sounds a few missions should take care of most of the damage. Soonyoung had put on some slippers but Jihoon is barefoot and when they reach the first floor there’s too much glass everywhere to continue. Without warning, Soonyoung picks Jihoon up and carries him to the entrance where Jihoon puts on some long socks stuffed in the shoe cupboard and a random pair of boots to save his feet from the disaster that is their floor.

In the kitchen, Soonyoung cooks breakfast just as Jihoon asked for. Thankfully the stove still works. Their coffee had to be served in half broken mugs though and Jihoon giggles at Soonyoung who tries to find a non-cracked edge to drink from.

It's fun, Jihoon thinks as he watches Soonyoung chop onions and sniff to keep the tears down. He missed this domestic happiness much. Sitting on the counter top by the stove, one knee bent so Soonyoung can kiss it occasionally while he's frying the eggs. It was too easy to go back to this when they really were in love before because it’s nothing new. It’s almost as if their life was put on pause for so many months and someone finally pressed play.

"We should've beaten the shit out of each other years ago," Jihoon snickers when the omelet is ready and they share it on one plate since most of their dishes are broken and feed each other every few bites.

"Who needs an expensive therapist when you can roughen up your husband until he gets the hint."

Jihoon lets out a noise that’s an unexplainable mix of a groan and a laugh smashed together. "God, that sounds like a court case."

"We're really one of a kind," Soonyoung snickers, nose scrunching and Jihoon wants to kiss the cute lines between his brows. "By the way, don't quote me on that in our divorce papers."

Jihoon freezes. "Divorce papers?"

"What? You think chasing me around with a shotgun and causing me severe internal bleeding will make me want to stay married to you?" Soonyoung asks, brow raised, and Jihoon feels cold all over for a second before he notices the witty twinkle in Soonyoung's eyes.

"Do you want me to beat you up again?" Jihoon asks pressing his fork onto the side of Soonyoung's neck. "Did you not get the message?" Jihoon asks pressing a bit harder and watching Soonyoung's grin widen and eyes darken into a familiar sheen. "You're not getting away from me."

"And why is that?" Soonyoung's neck moves against the fork and Jihoon pulls it down against his neck leaving light red marks in its wake.

"Because you're my husband. And we're going to make this marriage work."

"And why do you want to make this marriage work so badly?" Soonyoung probes, eyes still dark but smile softer.

"You know why."

"I want to hear you say it."

"Because we're dedicated."

"Nah, bullshit. Because you love me," Soonyoung says, grinning wide and Jihoon's grip on his fork almost falters. "Say it," Soonyoung whispers coming closer and one of his hands sneaks to take hold of Jihoon's bare thigh.

"Because  _you_ love me," Jihoon shoots back. "You say it."

"Okay," Soonyoung takes hold of Jihoon's hand still holding the fork and kisses the back of it. "I love you," he says simply. "I want to stay married to you forever," he says between kisses up Jihoon's forearm. "Would that be alright?"

Before Jihoon can reply something crashes into the window and they're both experienced enough to know it's not some neighborhood kid misplacing his football and before Jihoon can jump off the counter himself he’s being pulled down by Soonyoung to duck behind the island moments before the bomb on the other side of their kitchen explodes.

"Fuck!" Soonyoung yells. "Is it your people?"

"My people think you're dead!" Jihoon yells back. Another bomb flies in and Soonyoung grabs Jihoon's wrist pulling him quickly after him and out into the hallway right in time for the second bomb to explode.

"Downstairs," he grunts pushing Jihoon in front of him to their basement door. "I told Jun to stand down," he growls when they're downstairs rummaging through boxes to find any spare weapons.

Jihoon meanwhile finds an old pair of boots and throws them at Soonyoung ignoring how they hit the top of his head. "Put these on!"

"Ow!" Soonyoung looks over his shoulder with hurt eyes as he slides a gun he took out of his hiding space across the floor. It's the side of a fucking tennis ball. What the fuck.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jihoon asks, incredulous. "Is this is a toy gun?"

"It shoots! That's all that matters!" Soonyoung yells back as he pulls on his boots.

"You use it," Jihoon slides back the gun and opens a few cupboards before he finds a regular handgun that doesn't look like it was bought from  _Toys R Us_. "I'll be fine with this one," he smirks cocking the gun and Soonyoung mutters something bitter as he grabs the tiny weapon he found earlier.

"What was that, honey?" Jihoon smiles tightly and Soonyoung smiles sweetly back.

"I said whatever you want sweetheart. I love you," he adds and blows a kiss and if there weren't gunmen upstairs looking for them Jihoon might have kissed him for real.

"What's the plan?" Soonyoung asks as he turns around to look for another gun but before he can find anything the door to the basement opens and another bomb rolls in to land right in front of Soonyoung's foot. "What the fuck?!" Soonyoung kicks it away quickly and they both watch it roll to a stop right under the fuel box.

"Soonyoung!" Jihoon growls but Soonyoung is already grabbing him while the bomb starts ticking its quick final countdown and he shoots his tiny handgun into the lock that holds the backdoor entrance to the basement taking them outside. Their entire lawn is littered with agents and if the Hongs thought last night's noises were weird there's way too much proof this morning of what's really happening in their house. Jihoon’s reaction time is quick, though, and Soonyoung’s is quicker and as soon as they’re outside they’re shooting at the gunmen when behind them the whole house explodes and they're both thrown forward from the impact.

Jihoon lands face down onto the grass and something heavy falls atop of him and he wonders maybe if it’s the mattress from their bedroom.  _Fuck_ , he groans, but feels no other rubble land on him and when the debris above him moves he realizes it’s not debris but Soonyoung who jumped on top of him and that's why he hasn't felt anything.

"Soonyoung, get off of me," he grits out, not in anger but concerned if Soonyoung got hit by anything. Soonyoung rolls off and shakes out his boot the tip of which had caught on fire. Other than a few added scratches he seems fine. The agents littering their yard  _don’t_ seem fine though, and the explosions has clearly taken care of most of them. For a minute it's eerily quiet and the two stare at the mangled wood and debris where there house stood just a moment ago.  

"I loved that house," Soonyoung mutters, sitting up.

"At least you won't have to see those ugly curtains again," Jihoon says and Soonyoung grins at him. "Don't get distracted,” Jihoon warns. “We need a car."

Soonyoung's smile disappears and he looks around before his sharp eyes land on their neighbor's house. "The Hongs?" He suggests and Jihoon doesn't disagree.

 

✗

 

Getting into Josh's garage is way too easy and Soonyoung thinks he ought to send an apology letter once all this mess is over and refer the poor guy to some good home security companies. Thankfully Josh is a doctor too, affording a new car shouldn't be too hard and well, he drives a Prius so maybe Soonyoung is doing him a favor.

Jihoon reaches the car firsts and when he opens the passenger door it’s unlocked. "Fucking peaceful suburban lives," he mutters and Soonyoung can't help but agree. He's never felt that fucking safe in his life.

When Soonyoung gets inside the car and starts playing with the wires to start it without the key, he can feel Jihoon staring at him. "I think we need to be honest with each other," Jihoon says all of a sudden and Soonyoung looks at him briefly before continuing.

“Go ahead.”

“I never worked in the UN,” Jihoon confesses and Soonyoung pauses with the wires to look at his husband.

He seems upset. "What? Seriously? I really liked that about you!”

"We need honesty in this marriage," Jihoon says, checking quickly how many bullets he has in his gun. “That’s my confession.” Then he looks over at Soonyoung, expecting one back.

Soonyoung swallows. “I didn't go to Harvard," he says then. "I was a Dance major at NYU."

"Dance? And all these years you claimed you can’t dance?!" Jihoon asks incredulously and Soonyoung shrugs, the car starting.

"Honesty, right?" He presses gas and the Prius might be dorky but it's a sturdy car and pushes right through the garage door. There's an agent right outside and Soonyoung only presses the gas harder to hit the agent with the car. The impact throws the agent a bit further away and Soonyoung stops the car to run outside, grab his gun, kick him for good measure, and return to Jihoon.

"Who's got the good gun now?" He smirks and Jihoon rolls his eyes as Soonyoung keeps driving forward not caring for the car driving over the agent’s body.

They drive quickly out of their neighborhood and onto the highway. They don't seem to be followed yet and Soonyoung lets out a satisfied sigh. It’s been a long morning.

"If we're still being honest," he starts and Jihoon shoots him a glare. "I never liked your cooking. Not your gift."

Jihoon smirks and leans back on his seat. "Don’t worry about it, I never cooked a day in my life," he looks over at Soonyoung who glances at him briefly. "The interns did."

Soonyoung shakes his head and focuses back on the road.

"I never liked the curtains either," Jihoon admits and Soonyoung almost smiles, pleased.

"That's not a bad thing!"

"Who said honesty is bad?" Jihoon snaps back and Soonyoung shuts his mouth. "Your sister consistently shoves them down my throat, every fucking two years. I can't stand to refuse her anymore without being rude. She annoys me, sorry."

"No need to bring my family into this."

"I like your parents?" Jihoon suggests.

"It's not noona's fault she's overbearing..." Soonyoung mumbles.

There's a Queen song on the radio and Soonyoung starts belting it until Jihoon slaps him on the stomach.

"What?" Soonyoung asks, pouting. "I like it? And I'm not that bad of a singer either!"

"Sure, you’re not," Jihoon snickers.

"Are you going to tell me you're not a music producer either?"

"Not everything I've told you are lies," Jihoon says simply when he gets distracted by the rearview mirror. "We've got company."

"What?" Soonyoung blinks glancing at the mirror too and sees two SUVs behind them. How did he miss that? There are never SUVs in New York suburbia.

"Damn it," Jihoon mutters already crawling to the backseat and immediately hitting the window when Soonyoung turns sharply left the car.

"Soonyoung! Stop swerving!"

"It's called evasive driving!" Soonyoung yells back and Jihoon groans as he tries to straighten out despite Soonyoung dragging the car left and right.

"Soonyoung, fuck's sake! Please!" He grunts out as he leans forward to start shooting at the cars but he's consistently thrown back and forth and can't aim at all with Soonyoung's ‘evasive’ driving or whatever he wants to call this mess himself, but Soonyoung really doesn’t see any other option to avoid all the shooting coming from the other cars.

"Soonyoung, get out,” Jihoon says suddenly, right by Soonyoung’s ear. “I'm driving,"

"I'm the suburban housewife, sweetheart," he smiles innocently and Jihoon grabs his arm and starts pulling him out of his seat anyway.

"Fuck, fine, fine!" They switch somewhat smoothly despite racing down the highway and Soonyoung crawls to the back suddenly understanding why his 'evasive driving' is so tough to deal with. He does manage to prop himself on the backseat and starts shooting before he realizes the bullets aren't piercing anything.

"They're bulletproof!" He hears Jihoon yell before he leans forward to close the trunk and tells Jihoon again, "They're bulletproof."

"Yeah asshole!" Jihoon yells and Soonyoung gives him a stare.

"You know I should probably tell you," Soonyoung says as he reloads his gun, annoyed at Jihoon’s attitude while thinking of something good to irk him with. "I was married before," he watches Jihoon’s reaction – his whole body freezing, jaw clenching and then the car stops suddenly and Soonyoung is thrown forward by the sharp halt.

Somehow he's in the front seat again and Jihoon is hitting him with strong fists as he is back to racing down the highway.

"What the fuck Jihoon!" Soonyoung yells as he gets bombarded with punches. He didn’t expect  _this_ kind of response. "Are you out of your mind, what is wrong with you?"

"You're what's wrong with me!" Jihoon yells.

"It was a drunken Vegas thing!"

"Oh yes! That's  _so_ much better! Glad you just marry anyone you meet and get drunk with!"

Soonyoung offhandedly realizes how much it resembles their own meeting but he pushes Jihoon harshly away anyway.

"Stop it!" He says going back to the backseat. "It was nothing, we got it annulled in like a week!"

"Good to know you've always been such a meticulous guy!"

"Jihoon, fuck's sake! Honesty remember?!" He gets distracted when an agent rolls up by their window and Soonyoung shoots him quickly and Soonyoung guesses he got the guy when the SUV pulls back.

"What's her full name and passport number?" Jihoon asks, voice calm on the surface but Soonyoung knows it’s a big façade. He looks at him incredulously.

"You're not going to kill her!"

Jihoon purses his lips and doesn't say anything. Suddenly two SUV cars surround them on each side and Jihoon speeds, swerving expertly and one of the SUV's crashes brutally into an upcoming tunnel wall.

“Nice!” Soonyoung grins looking over his shoulder briefly. “Only one left!”

“Focus!” Jihoon yells back and Soonyoung turns back around to see an agent is about jump on their car. As soon as he makes the leap Soonyoung opens the trunk with the automatic button and the impact flings the man onto the highway and Soonyoung winces when he hears a distant crack.  

“Maybe these ugly cars aren’t so bad after all,” he mutters pressing the button to close the trunk and twists away when Jihoon tries to hit him again.

“Fuck’s sake! Are you always like this chatty on missions?!” Jihoon yells. “Focus!”

Soonyoung almost makes a face at him but stays quiet as he watches the SUV chasing them as he tries to quickly think of a plan.

“Seriously…” He hears Jihoon mutter furiously. “You’re impossible to work with. How does your poor partner even put up with you? As usual I need to take care of everything,” he sighs through his complaining. “Hold on tight,” he warns and Soonyoung barely has time to take hold of the handle overhead before Jihoon presses gas and is spinning the car in a 180 degree and the SUV breaks abruptly not understanding what Jihoon is doing. Jihoon doesn’t stop, however, and now they’re driving against the incoming traffic and Soonyoung is too speechless to say anything.

There is a bridge ahead and Jihoon swerves left to drive up onto it and Soonyoung turns around to see that the SUV is right behind them. Jihoon slows down to let the SUV reach them so they’re side by side, which Soonyoung thinks is a little dumb considering they’re on a two lane one-way bridge and the cars ahead of them are starting to bunch up dangerously. Jihoon doesn’t seem phased, though, as he expertly smashes into the SUV hard enough that it topples off the bridge almost comically and Jihoon doesn’t lose any time to swerve back around and drive away quickly in the right direction.

When they’re back on the highway Soonyoung is still staring at him in awe from the passenger seat.

“Fuck,” he says finally. Jihoon doesn’t even look like he broke a sweat.

“Spent a few years in Hong Kong in my early days,” Jihoon explains casually. “Car chases in traffic are nothing compared to this.”

“Whatever you say,” Soonyoung mumbles, still very impressed and very much in love.

“So,” Jihoon says. “Name?”

Soonyoung rolls his eyes. “It’s not like you’re the most honest person ever either,” he accuses loudly and Jihoon purses his lips.

“Fine,” he admits, pausing. He’s clearly debating whether or not he should say anything and after a minute he finally speaks. “My parents… They died when I was a kid.”

Soonyoung stares in surprise. “What? What about the nice man that gave you away at our wedding?”

“Paid actor,” Jihoon shrugs with one shoulder, eyes focused on the road.

“I knew I recognized him from  _Friends_!”

“Sorry,” Jihoon shrugs again and Soonyoung throws his head back against the headrest. “What are you so surprised about?” Jihoon asks, finally. “We’re not all happy-go-luckies with a supportive family! As if I can believe your family is as perfect as they seem when you turned out to be an assassin.”

“My family is super!” Soonyoung defends, then he adds, voice softening. “In my senior year, Dad lost his job… Had to pay for college somehow and help my parents at the same time. This job pays well. I could pay for college and afford to live in the city  _and_ take care of my whole family’s expenses.” It was always a simple reason, to give the people who nurtured him a better life even if he had to sacrifice a little of his soul for it. It felt fair. “My roommate got me into it.”

“How the fuck does that conversation even happen?” Jihoon wonders out loud.

“I saw him come home in a bloody shirt and a thousand grand in his back pocket and the next day I sent his company my CV,” Soonyoung explains simply and Jihoon shakes his head. “What about you?”

“Foster homes are a scary place, Soonyoung,” he watches the road and his jaw clenches obviously. “You don’t want to know about it.”

“Okay,” Soonyoung says, voice soft. “Not right now, sure, but someday you should tell me.”

Jihoon’s eyes glance at him briefly and Soonyoung notices his grip on the wheel tighten before he gives him one curt nod and Soonyoung feels lighter with all of this honesty talk and hopes that maybe despite all the uncovering lies, things won’t be so bad after all.

They drive for a little while longer and make a plan to meet with Jun to understand what the fuck is really happening here. Soonyoung texts Jun and he replies quickly to arrange to meet at a diner in the quieter areas of Brooklyn.

“Jun,” Soonyoung says sitting down in front of his friend and Jun smiles excitedly.

“Soonyoung!” He cheers. “So glad to see you! You finally kill that short asshole?”

“You mean this short asshole?” Jihoon asks coming up from behind and sitting by Soonyoung’s side.

“Shit” Jun swallows leaning back. “Sorry,” he says looking at Soonyoung. “Sorry, I just assumed…” he breaks off looking back at Jihoon. “It’s great to see you, Jihoon. You’ve been well?” Jihoon’s eyes narrow and he doesn’t reply. Jun watches them both for a second, then groans, head low in his hands. “You two are idiots,” he says finally. “They’re going to kill you both because you’re too dumb to do it yourselves.”

“I don’t want to kill my husband,” Soonyoung says righteously and Jun looks up so Soonyoung can see him staring at the ceiling.

“Last night you were telling me all the ways you’ll decapitate his pretty little head and now you’re what? Too in love to kill each other? Give me a break,” Jun raises a hand to order a beer and Soonyoung glances apologetically at Jihoon who’s watching him through narrowed eyes.

“I didn’t know the truth back then, Jihoonie,” he says cutely and Jihoon rolls his eyes focusing back on Jun.

“Both agencies want us dead don’t they?” Jihoon asks. “Why?”

“Why?” Jun repeats as the waiter comes back with his beer and he takes a huge swig out of it. “Either you two are dumber than I thought or you really are just too naïve,” he sighs. “Rival agencies whose best agents are also married to each other. The amount of secrets that could be exchanged, they won’t risk it.”

“That’s it?” Jihoon’s hand tightens into a fist. “Can’t they talk to us? Make a contract or something? We’ve been dedicated agents for almost a decade and married for more than half of that!” 

“What is this? An office job?” Jun leans forward, voice lowering and growing more urgent. “You kill people for a living, Jihoon. A company that kills others for a heap of money will have no problem killing a few of their own as long as their secrets stay safe.”

“So why didn’t they just get rid of us when we started dating?” Soonyoung asks.

Jun shrugs. “Like you said. You’re good agents. I guess when the cracks began to appear, they couldn’t risk it anymore.”

Soonyoung looks at Jihoon again and sees he isn’t too convinced either. When he looks back, he asks. “How does the situation look?” When Jun doesn't answer, Soonyoung presses harder. “How bad is it?”

Jun licks his lips and looks between the two of them. “It’s bad.”

“How bad?” Jihoon grits out but Jun only keeps looking at Soonyoung.

“You remember Moscow?”

Soonyoung whistles. “That bad?”

“That was you?!” Jihoon asks. “The one with the machete in the middle of the Red Square?”

“You remember that?” Jun laughs but it’s humorless. “Is this a turn on or something?” Before Soonyoung can defend his husband Jun shakes his head. “You know what it doesn’t matter. Facts matter. And fact is that you two are dead unless you either kill each other or separate. For good. That way you have at least some chance at living some mediocre secret life. Run away and hide. Maybe if you really  _really_ want, meet again in twenty years if you idiots are still alive.” Soonyoung looks over at Jihoon and Jihoon doesn’t meet his eyes but his hand does slip under the table to take hold of Soonyoung’s.

“You think there might be a third option?” Jihoon tests and Jun purses his lips before swallowing.

“Find something they want more than they want you,” he says simply and takes a large swig out of his beer. “And it better be good.”

“There was that boy,” Jihoon snaps his fingers with his free hand, remembering. “The one from Vegas, we never got him. At least  _we_  didn’t… Did you?”

“No,” Soonyoung says looking at Jun to sense for a reaction but Jun pointedly takes another sip.

“I can’t help you with this Soonyoung,” he concedes when he notices Soonyoung still looking. “I got my mom to take care of.”

Soonyoung is about to say something to that when Jihoon stands up. “It’s fine. I know a guy,” he looks over at Soonyoung with a tiny hint of a smile. Then he excuses himself to go make a call from the street phone outside of the restaurant.  

“You’re fucking insane,” Jun says as soon as Jihoon is gone. “You’re killing yourself, you realize that right?”

“We know what we’re doing, Jun,” Soonyoung replies just as harshly. “I’d appreciate support from my partner.”

“I don’t appreciate death.”

“Funny considering your occupation,” Soonyoung bites out.

“It pays good money, Soonyoung, and you know I have medical bills to pay so don’t patronize me. Don’t you think I wish I could afford all this shit some other way? Not tell my mom I’m going to my stupid ass contracting job but that I’m killing people so she can live!” Soonyoung can’t reply to that. As much as he makes fun of Jun still living with his mom the situation there is much more strenuous and the jokes are just a way to make the gruesome situation a little bit lighter. “I just want you to be sure you’re doing the right thing. You remember what happened with Wonwoo.”

“Of course!” Soonyoung says immediately. Wonwoo was his college roommate, his best friend, too. Decided to start a family without warning the company and it’s been four years since anybody has heard of him. “You don’t know Jihoon the way I do,” he speaks finally. “That’s all you need to know about that.”

Jun watches him for a moment longer and raises his bottle to finish it clean. “I need another one,” he mutters raising his hand to call over a waitress. “I really don’t want to see you die Soonyoung.”

“I won’t,” Soonyoung smiles ruefully and Jun sighs as he orders another beer and a shot of vodka on the side.

 

✗

 

Jihoon had noticed a payphone outside the diner as soon as they got there and he already knew the only person he’d ever consider calling so here he was, dialing his number.

The phone gets picked up on the fourth ring. “Seungcheol,” Jihoon states quickly. “I need a favor.”

“Jihoon? Fuck. What the fuck, are you okay? Where are you?” Seungcheol voice comes panicked through the receiver as soon as he recognizes it’s Jihoon.

“I’m fine,” Jihoon replies quickly, ignoring the soft pang in his chest from his best friend’s concern. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Christ, I was worried sick,” Seungcheol keeps talking but his voice lowers and Jihoon thinks he hears him typing on his computer. “You do realize I got a notification for your head? Half a million dollars, Jihoon. Same for your dear husband. They’re gunning for you two. It’s not safe.”

“I know all that,” Jihoon hisses. “Just,” he licks his lips looking around still slightly panicked from before. “Look up that agent I was supposed to get in Nevada. Chan something? I think he’s also a Lee.”

“Chan Lee, yeah,” Seungcheol is already typing and in a few seconds he has a location. “FBI has a facility on the outskirts of Newark, he’s there. You know the place right?”

“The one from two years ago?”

“Yeah.” They’re both quiet for a moment. “Anything else?”

“I’ll need equipment, a car, too. Preferably something that the company can’t track,” Seungcheol is humming, already making arrangements.

“They’ll be in the warehouse where we kept that billiard table until a few years ago,” Seungcheol’s voice is serious but Jihoon can’t help but let out a laugh.

“Thanks, Cheol.”

Seungcheol is silent again before he asks softly, “Can I help?”

“I don’t want to drag you into this any more than I need to. This is my problem. Mine and Soonyoung’s.”

“I want to, though.”

“Seungcheol… You’ve done enough for me,” he isn’t talking about just now and Seungcheol knows it because he sighs and lets out a small groan.

“Just don’t disappear, okay? I always liked Soonyoung but if it’s you or him… Save yourself, okay? For old time’s sake?”

“I can’t promise that,” Jihoon confesses quietly and Seungcheol sighs again, more frustrated now.

“Then just stay alive, alright? You’re the only family I have left, Jihoon. Be a little considerate, please.” Right. Brothers by choice not by blood. They grew up in the same foster home and got into the same field of work for mutual survival. They got enough money to graduate from top Universities and Cheol scored a real job as a businessman on Wall Street while Jihoon ended up as a music producer on the side. It worked well for them, this double-sided life, and they wouldn’t have been able to get here without each other. At the end of the day, Soonyoung or no Soonyoung, Seungcheol was his only family in the world.

“I’ll do my best.”

“Love you, Jihoon.”

“Goodbye, Seungcheol.”

“Don’t say bye like that,” Seungcheol laughs but it’s weak.

“Love you, too. Thanks for everything,” Jihoon says quickly before he hangs up.

He heads back to the restaurant and ignores Jun to tell Soonyoung that he has a location.

“I guess this is it,” Soonyoung says smiling awkwardly at Jun. Jun just frowns as he watches Soonyoung get up and offer him his hand.

“Seven years as partners and all I get is a handshake?” Jun mutters getting up too to grasp Soonyoung’s hand and shake it firmly. Then he looks over at Jihoon who watches him with arms crossed. “You better keep him alive you psycho-midget,” Jihoon bears his teeth in a scowl and Jun smiles cutely with a wink. “Never liked you Jihoon, but if you can keep Soonyoung alive then maybe we can start off new.”

“Thanks, but I’ll pass,” Jihoon tells him, ignoring Jun’s genuine grin at his refusal, and tugs Soonyoung’s sleeve. “We need to go,” Soonyoung nods and lets go of Jun’s hand.

“I’ll see you around?”

“I hope not,” Jun sighs sitting back down. “Stay far away from me or you’ll drag me down into your mess,” he mumbles but Jihoon can tell his heart isn’t in it. Soonyoung nods curtly and heads out of the restaurant while Jihoon stays behind for a moment.

“I’ll take care of him,” Jihoon tells him, not sure why he needs to promise Jun anything but he also feels a little bit like he has to. Jun nods not meeting his eyes and Jihoon thinks this is enough between two people who dislike each other, and follows Soonyoung out.

Outside, Soonyoung stuffs his hands into his pockets. They’re still in the suburbs so their ruined Prius isn’t too scandalous especially when there’s at least ten other Prius’ parked nearby, but it’s definitely unsuitable for a mission. While they stare silently at the car Jihoon takes out a pack of cigarettes from the jacket he put on earlier that he found in the trunk of Josh’s car.

“Where did you even get those?” Soonyoung asks when Jihoon lights one.

“There was a cigarette machine by the bathroom,” Jihoon speaks through the exhale. Fuck, he knows it’s a bad habit but it feels almost rewarding to blow the smoke out and feel his heart rate crawl slowly back to normal. When he looks up at Soonyoung, he is already watching him back with a mixed expression.

“Don’t look like that,” Jihoon tells him. “We’ll be fine.” Soonyoung nods but doesn’t say anything, looking away. Things are forming into some sort of plan, but everything about this is still a little awkward. Risking each other’s lives when twenty-four hours ago they were ready to kill each other. It’s weird to so rapidly go back to this unyielding love, both familiar and unfamiliar, as they try to unravel all the lies.

But even so he loves him, Jihoon thinks, taking a deep inhale of the cigarette. He wouldn’t be risking everything if he didn’t.

Without a word he tugs at Soonyoung’s wrist so he takes his hand out of his pocket and laces their fingers together. When he looks over at Soonyoung again he’s looking down at the ground and his ears are a little pink.

“We’re idiots, aren’t we?” He says, meeting Jihoon’s eyes, lips bent in that sweet shy smile of his.

“A little,” Jihoon agrees throwing his cigarette onto the ground and stubbing it with the toe of his boot. “Do you want to do this any other way?”

“We can’t.”

“We could split up, like they want us to.”

Soonyoung’s expression turns grim. “Like I said, there’s no other way,” he tells him seriously and Jihoon can’t help but smile.

“Then let’s go get this Chan Lee.”

 

✗

 

They arrive to the Newark facility at around eleven in the evening. It’s always good to come at dark but not after midnight when security is densest. Eleven is a good time, people rarely expect to get intruders before the clock strikes twelve.

Seungcheol, Jihoon’s partner, brother, best friend, whatever they call each other, provided them with quite the loot for their mission. Clothing, guns, some other “spy equipment” as the kids call it, and even a car with surveillance in the back and enough space to keep a hostage. They had some time to kill so they went to McDonalds. Twice. They also used the space in the back of the van for some other privileges. Also twice. Now they are parked outside the FBI building and the air between them is softer than it was in the morning and Soonyoung thinks pleasantly that beyond a beating, a good old fuck was really missing in their marriage for the last year.

“Tell me the plan,” Jihoon requests, watching the building in front of them to scan for guards.

“I go in, you stay here, I get the guy, you’re still here, I come back with the guy, you are  _still_ here but now in the driver’s seat. As soon as I’m inside, you drive. We contact our companies telling them we have the guy, the companies have an epiphany decide not to kill us and let us stay married then we go on a vacation to the Bahamas? Or maybe South Korea? Haven’t seen my family in a while and I’ve heard Jeju is nice this time of year… All in all it’s a happily ever after.”

As soon as Soonyoung is done Jihoon punches his shoulder. “Take this seriously!”

“You didn’t marry serious, sweetheart,” Soonyoung smiles cutely and Jihoon is clearly not impressed from the way his eyes send daggers. “I know the plan, Jihoon. All day you wouldn’t shut up about the damn plan even as I sucked your-“

“Soonyoung!” Jihoon groans leaning back in his seat and pressing his palms over his eyes. Soonyoung is quiet letting Jihoon take it out of his system. When Jihoon lowers his hands and tilts his head to look at Soonyoung, Soonyoung is smiling expectantly. “You want to live, right?” Jihoon asks. “You want us to stay together, right? Take this fucking seriously. Please”

“I am,” he tells him but Jihoon doesn’t seem to believe his words. “You think I find this whole situation peachy? When I just got you back and now both our lives are on the line…” Soonyoung takes hold of Jihoon’s hand to press his palm against his own chest so Jihoon can feel just how hard his heart is beating. Jihoon’s glare softens and he curls his fingers around Soonyoung’s. “I’m taking this very seriously, trust me,” Soonyoung’s voice is as low as a whisper. “I’ll make sure we stay together for a long time, okay? Because it’s what we both want.”

“Yeah,” Jihoon nods softly. “But still, the plan,” he emphasizes and Soonyoung sighs letting their hands drop and moving to the back of the car to get ready. “You don’t have more than ten minutes inside, got it?” He starts talking because Soonyoung is clearly not compromising with talking through the plan. Again. “When we’re ready I cut off the power, we only have a thirty second window. You grab the kid, nothing else, then leave. Simple and clean.”

“Yes sir,” Soonyoung nods checking the two guns he’s taking with him and if the bulletproof vest is properly tightened. It’s thin, much thinner than he’s used to, and much more comfortable, too. Soonyoung won’t say it out loud but he’s pretty impressed with Jihoon’s company’s equipment. “By the way, you never told me. How many?”

Jihoon narrows his eyes. “Right now,  _this_  second, does it matter?”

“Should I say first, then?”

Jihoon groans. “We don’t have time for this.”

Soonyoung ignores him. “I don’t really keep count but I think probably around forty... Maybe more in the fifties actually.“

“A hundred twenty,” Jihoon says finally. “There, happy? Can we please start with the mission, now.”

Soonyoung stares dumbly at Jihoon. “A hundred twenty? Are you kidding me?”

“It’s not that surprising, some were two at a time,” Jihoon defends and all Soonyoung can do is groan turning away. He can’t face Jihoon right now. This whole entire day was one big ugly surprise. He was exhausted. He just wanted to get Chan and have this nightmare end.

“Stop being dramatic, you’re the one who asked.”

“I don’t know anything about you,” he mutters longingly.  

“You know everything about me that matters,” Jihoon assures him and Soonyoung meets his eyes before letting out another groan and leaving the car without another word.

Getting inside was pretty easy considering it’s a government building but Soonyoung decides he’ll take any luck he can.

“I’m in,” he says into his earpiece.

“Already?”

“Got in through the sewage.”

“If you stink I’m not letting you back in the car.”

“Thanks, I love you too,” he looks around the tunnel, it definitely reeks. “Where to?”

“Straight,” Soonyoung starts crawling.

“You checked the perimeter?”

“Of course.”

“Any activity outside?”

“Focus on your own mission.”

“What about the connection?”

“Soonyoung, it’s not my first time.”

“Clearly we’ve established you're experienced in many fields,” Soonyoung grumbles and can hear Jihoon sigh through the earpiece.  

“Oh come on,” Jihoon mutters. “Just focus.” Soonyoung continues forward for a few meters. “Okay take a left.”

Soonyoung looks left but there’s just a wall so he continues forward thinking maybe there’s a turn later on.

“I said left, Soonyoung.” Soonyoung keeps forward. “Soonyoung. Take a left. Left. Turn left. I said turn left. Left!”

“Jeez,” Soonyoung takes off his glasses, another little cool tech Jihoon’s company has and twists it around so that the camera lens can show Jihoon that there is no fucking left. Then he moves the camera to his face. “You could be a little nicer, you know? No need for that tone.”

“There is no tone,” Jihoon says calmly and Soonyoung rolls his eyes making sure Jihoon sees. “Is there a right?”

“No right, no left, just straight and back, so tell me which way should I go?”

Jihoon pauses. “I’m checking. Wait for my command.”

Soonyoung looks down at the gross sewage water underneath him. “No problem,” he says turning the camera to the floor. “But just so you know this is what I’m sitting in. You see that,” he points pointedly at the dirty river beneath him. “In case you’re disappointed by the smell afterwards.”

“Just be quiet,” Jihoon warns. “Please,” he adds as an afterthought.

“No problem, honey,” he replies sweetly. “Take your time.” Although he says that sitting in a puddle of literal shit is not very pleasant so he moves back just to make sure he didn’t miss a turn earlier.

“Soonyoung I told you to keep still!” Jihoon says over the earpiece but Soonyoung crawls a little further backwards anyway. “Soonyoung for fucks sake! I told you to wait for my command.”

Soonyoung notices a turn he didn’t see beforehand and crawls through it ignoring Jihoon’s nagging in his ear. “Cut the lights off on my signal,” he tells him when he sees a ladder and starts climbing it.

“Soonyoung, what the fuck are you doing?" Soonyoung thinks he shouldn’t be flattered of the worried tone in Jihoon’s voice but this isn’t Soonyoung’s first time and it’s a little offensive that Jihoon doesn’t trust him to know what he’s doing.

“This isn’t my first time, either,” he tells Jihoon as he climbs up to the top. “On my signal, okay?”

“Fucking hell, Soonyoung!” Jihoon is definitely panicked now. “There are guards everywhere.”

“It’s okay, Jihoonie,” Soonyoung assures softly reaching for the latch in the ceiling and making sure all his guns are accessible and a smoke bomb ready in his other hand. “Ready?” Jihoon doesn’t reply but Soonyoung knows is. As soon as he opens the latch, Soonyoung throws out the bomb letting the space fill with smoke. In a second he’s out of the tunnel and the glasses aren’t just good for camera but looking through smoke screens, too. “Definitely keeping these,” Soonyoung mutters aloud as he starts shooting at the body shapes he sees in the smoke with the help of his lenses.

He runs down the hallway once it’s clear. “Okay, Jihoon, cut the lights.” He reaches the corner and there are guards there but the lights are still on and everyone is shooting at each other. “Jihoon! Lights, now!”

“Fuck, I’m on it! Continue straight, the guy should be there!”

“I don’t give a fuck right now, just turn off the damn lights!” Soonyoung yells feeling a bullet lodge in his waist and thankfully the bulletproof waist despite its thinness does a miraculous job that Soonyoung barely feels any bruising pain. Despite Jihoon’s tardiness, he’s still pretty skilled in these situations from all the years of experience and holds off the guards quite well until darkness engulfs them, and with the help of his glasses he takes out the last three men before he continues towards Chan.  

“There’s a security door at the end of the hall,” Jihoon says in his ear. Soonyoung sprints down the hallway and just as Jihoon had told him, this time he does indeed spot a high security door up ahead. Soonyoung uses the extra bomb he had in his pocket to throw it ahead and ducks behind the corner as the weapon explodes upon contact with the door. As soon as the explosion clears Soonyoung goes in taking care of the only guard inside in a quick second.

“I’m probably in the hundreds,” he says as an afterthought and Jihoon actually lets out a laugh. “Chan Lee?”

“Yes, yes!” He hears a voice inside.

“Jihoon, turn on the lights.”

“It’s not clear yet,” Jihoon refuses. “There’s guards around the perimeter.”

Soonyoung clicks his tongue in annoyance but leans down to grab keys from the guard he shot. “Hello, Chan,” he says when he’s unlocking his cage and thanks to his glasses he can see Chan tied to a chair in the middle of the cell. “You’re coming with me.”

“Oh, gladly!” He jumps in his seat eagerly, teeth showing in a bright smile and Soonyoung can’t help but think the guy looks way too unscathed despite locked in an underground, high security cell. “Who sent you?”

“Shut up,” Soonyoung mutters as he takes out a knife from a belt on his thigh to cut Chan’s ropes, then tells Jihoon through the earpiece. “Hope you have air freshener in the car baby, we’ll be back soon.”

 

✗

 

Jihoon is all ready in the driver’s seat when Soonyoung comes back throwing a twisting Chan in the back of their car and telling Jihoon to go.

“Ugh,” Jihoon says as soon as Soonyoung settles in the passenger seat after retying Chan’s hands in the back. “You really do stink.”

“I climbed through sewage, Jihoon, I went through actual shit! At least we got the guy.”

“At what cost,” Jihoon mutters but does smile when Soonyoung throws him a glare. “You did well,” he says more quietly while Chan writhes in the back. “Although you’re a little bit too chaotic for my liking.”

“That’s not what you say in-“

“Soonyoung,” Jihoon warns and Soonyoung smirks.

“Different methods, babe. As long as it works I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”

“That’s what we said about our marriage and look where we ended up.”

“Our marriage had its own problems and we both know that.”

“Our marriage didn’t have that many problems. You half-assing it was a problem, though. Just like you tried to half-ass this mission. Not everything needs a shortcut, Soonyoung.”

“God,” Soonyoung groans throwing his head back onto the headrest. “Do you always have to  _nag?_ I didn’t half ass anything, it’s called instinct honey!”

“And was our marriage instinct, too? So you just enjoy not putting any effort into holidays, anniversaries and birthday presents?”

Soonyoung turns to look at Jihoon and narrows his eyes. “What’s this conversation really about?”

“Are you really not thinking about it?” Jihoon asks glancing briefly at him.

“Thinking about what?”

“What ruined our marriage?”

“Wasn’t it all the lies?”

“See?” Jihoon’s frown deepens as he watches the road. “You’re finding a shortcut again. Things aren’t always that simple.”

Soonyoung keeps watching him unsure what Jihoon wants from him. “What do you expect from our marriage, Jihoon?”

“I want a team. I want someone I can count on.”

“You want me to follow your every order!” Soonyoung tries not to raise his voice but it’s hard when he can’t figure out what Jihoon wants from him. “I’m not a servant, I’m your husband.”

“I know that!”

“So trust me a little would you?”

“I trust you plenty!”

“So why are you making this a big deal? Mistakes happen, spontaneity happens and it  _should_ happen! Keeps things interesting! Who’s the guy I met in Kyoto all those years ago, fuck’s sake...”

“Does it matter anyway?” Jihoon mutters angrily. “We’re always following some sort of cover even this marriage is all a cover at the core of it, right? A way to keep people from asking questions,” he says and Soonyoung, speechless, looks out the window instead of answering.  

“Who the fuck are you guys?!” Chan yells finally from the back of the van and Jihoon, knuckles white on the wheel, yells back, “Shut up!”

 

✗

 

They drive in silence to a motel a few hours outside of Newark just to be safe. The boy in the back has been quiet the entire ride and Soonyoung even dosed off for a little while Jihoon brewed on what he said earlier. He didn’t actually mean his words, though there was some truth to them, but the way Soonyoung deflated when he said them… Jihoon looked through the rearview mirror at the boy’s shape in the back. He and Soonyoung can’t really discuss anything until they’re alone, he decides. Whenever that would be.

The motel’s parking lot is empty which is ideal when they’re bringing in a body with a sack over its head and while Jihoon signs them up for a room, Soonyoung carries Chan and their duffel bag of extra weapons discretely upstairs. When they’re all inside the room they place Chan harshly on a chair and despite not really talking to each other, Jihoon and Soonyoung exchange looks when they notice just how easily Chan is compromising in a hostage situation. It’s almost like he feels invincible despite two armed angry men tying him tightly to a chair. Still, Chan is their last resort so a complying hostage isn’t the worst that could happen when their lives are on the line.

Before they interrogate him Soonyoung takes a quick shower changing into an extra change of clothes Cheol had stored for them and Jihoon, for the entire seven minutes, doesn't take his eyes off of Chan.

“So,” Soonyoung says once he’s seated across from Chan.

“Thank god,” Chan mutters, interrupting. “Your husband is creepy.”

Jihoon narrows his eyes at the boy and Soonyoung looks over to look at him himself, unimpressed. Then he turns back to the boy, focusing. “ _So_ ,” Soonyoung emphasizes when he starts over, and Jihoon remains watching from quietly the bed, his gun on the bedside table by his side pointing directly at Chan while his fingers drum loudly on the tabletop. “As you can see, me and the mister are having some domestic issues,” Jihoon tries not to roll his eyes as he watches Chan’s gaze dart to Jihoon’s gun and back to Soonyoung. “Don’t take that as a sign of weakness, though, your life is still on the line,” Soonyoung assures him and Chan carefully nods. “Now, tell us, why do our bosses want you dead?”

Chan looks between them two, the three if the gun is added to the stare off, and finally shakes his head. “I don’t know,” he says quietly.

“You must know-“ Soonyoung cuts himself off and looks over at Jihoon. “Honey,” his eyes dart to Jihoon’s drumming fingers. “Please.”

Jihoon sighs closing his hand into a fist and placing it by the gun. “Wrap it up,” he smiles tightly and Soonyoung’s eyes narrow.

“You know,” he says leaning slightly towards Jihoon but they’re still far apart enough for Chan to definitely hear every word he’s telling him. “Maybe it’s not a very good idea to undermine me in front of the hostage,” he points out and even Chan nods. “Sends a bad message.”

Jihoon opens his mouth to say something, but changes his mind crossing his arms instead. “Sorry, please go on.”

Soonyoung watches him for a second then sighs focusing back on Chan. “Okay, where was I?” Jihoon clears his throat and Soonyoung throws him a glare before turning back to the hostage and Jihoon can’t help but smirk at their weird power-play.  

“You asked me about my bosses,” Chan mutters helpfully and Soonyoung tells him to shut up.

“Okay, kid,” Soonyoung starts over for the umpteenth time. “Let’s just get straight to the point. I’m offering you three options. Option A,” he leans an elbow on his thigh and raises one finger. “You talk and we listen. Simple. Option B,” second finger. “A bit more complicated. You don’t talk, I remove your thumbs with the high tech plyers from my husband’s company one by one. It will hurt. Option C,” he raises a third finger and shrugs. “I like to change up the details every time but the finish line is you die,” he says it so casually Jihoon can’t help but be impressed. Is this really the manipulative Soonyoung he had missed out on for all these years? “It’s up to you, Chan,” Soonyoung says leaning forward, both elbows on his thighs. “We’re impatient people as you’ve seen already. I’d recommend you speed it up.”

The boy is clearly freaked out, biting on the inside of his cheek but he doesn’t speak for almost a minute and Jihoon’s fists tighten in frustration.

“Could I,” Chan starts, throat clearing. “Maybe get a water, or a juice, I-“

Without warning Jihoon gets up from the bed and punches Chan hard enough that the chair he’s in falls back.  

“Option A!” Chan yells from the floor as Jihoon steps away and smirks pointedly at Soonyoung who stands up to lift Chan’s chair back. “Option A, option A!” Chan keeps yelling.

“Fine,” Soonyoung mutters to Jihoon who leans against the wall, arms crossing. “That was a good call.” Jihoon doesn’t say anything but smiles and Soonyoung doesn’t meet his eyes concentrating instead on the boy.

“Get talking, Chan Lee,” Jihoon speaks for Soonyoung and Chan throws him a wary glance before finally speaking.

“Check my back pocket,” he says and Jihoon’s eyes narrow before he pushes Chan’s shoulder harshly forward to reach for the back of his pants and take out a photograph. When he sees it he freezes.

“Who is it?” Soonyoung asks staring up at Jihoon.

“It’s you two. You two are the target,” Chan answers for him. Jihoon recognizes it as a photo from almost a month ago when they were having a sort of good day and decided to go out to eat dinner to a fancy sushi restaurant uptown. Of course the dinner was horrible but on the photo they were actually laughing at something for once and Jihoon’s heart squeezed at seeing them both smiling without a care in the world. “Your companies found out Mr. Lee was asking questions about  _Hoshi Enterprises_ and decided to bury the secret by getting rid of you two. They decided to send you both after the same target so you two get rid of each other in the process. Two competing agents living under the same roof?” He says while Jihoon passes Soonyoung the photo. “It’s bad for business. Especially when one of them starts asking questions.”

“You were bait,” Soonyoung mumbles still looking at the photo. Jihoon is too freaked that he’s the reason all of this went to shit in the first place. Who ratted him out? The only person who knew was Seungcheol and Jihoon refuses to believe he’d ever give him up like that.

“My first solo mission,” Chan says, distracting Jihoon from his thoughts and Jihoon is really ready to punch him again just to shut him up but Soonyoung grabs his wrist with his free hand.

“Well you royally suck at it,” Jihoon grits out, ripping his wrist out of Soonyoung’s grasp. “Keeping the target photo in the back of your jeans? Are you an idiot?”

“What was I supposed to do with it? Frame it?”

“Burn it you idiot! It’s agent 101.”

“Well sorry, maybe I skipped that lesson! Clearly you aren’t doing so great either marrying the enemy.” Jihoon almost gasps at that, his hand coming up to grip the gun on his waist and Chan swallows.

“He probably has a tracker on him,” Soonyoung says quickly and before they can look for it there’s helicopter noise outside.

“Oh yeah, it’s on my belt,” Chan is clearly flooded with confidence from the sound of backup and Jihoon has the urge to shoot him right there but he remembers himself being a rookie agent back in the day and how every little mission meant the world to him.

He still takes out the gun and presses it harshly against the boy’s jugular. “I ought to kill you,” he spits out and feels Soonyoung’s hand warm on his back. “Don’t ever show me your face again.”

“Jihoon this is serious,” he says when they hear cars screeching in the motel parking lot. “We need to go.” For extra measure Jihoon kicks Chan in the stomach almost making the chair fall back again and without another word the two make their escape.

Within minutes, the motel is swarmed with agents and Jihoon runs after Soonyoung through the staircase farthest away from the parking lot to end up in a maintenance shed of the motel’s pool. It’s small enough that two people squeezing inside is almost unnatural and Jihoon hopes that whoever is looking for them for will assume the same.

“What now?” Soonyoung whispers first, breath fanning the top of Jihoon’s nose and he’s so close and warm Jihoon can’t help but lean his forehead down onto his chest and just breathe in deep. Soonyoung’s hand squeezes between the wall and Jihoon’s back and runs it along his spine soothingly while the noise of agents storming the motel sound loudly from outside.

“Do you think we really should just split?” Jihoon says finally, voice muffled but with the way Soonyoung’s fingers tense at the base of his neck he knows he heard him. After a second he leans away pushing Jihoon off of him to make their eyes meet.

“Okay, so we’re bad at being married,” he says, gaze urgent. “So we’re both liars and disasters and have killed more people than socially acceptable.”

“I don’t think any number is socially acceptable,” Jihoon mumbles and Soonyoung lips curve into a small smile.

“But if we run, we’ll always be running, and if we stay…” Soonyoung’s hand slips onto Jihoon’s cheek where it holds him softly. “We stay and we fight, Jihoon, and we finish this. And after that,” his thumb runs down his cheekbone, “if you want to go, I won’t stop you.”

“Well, thanks, I appreciate that,” Jihoon mutters coldly but leans into his touch.

“You don’t seem enthusiastic about this,” Soonyoung frowns. “With all of your controlling I never thought you’d be someone who gave up.”

“I don’t give up,” Jihoon assures kicking him slightly on the shin and Soonyoung smiles brightly kicking back. “We went this far you think I’d just let you run away?”

“You’re the one who wants to split.”

“Sure, split and meet up down in Florida take a ship to Mexico City and a flight out to Seoul. I really do want a nice long vacation at Jeju.”

“You really thought this through,” Soonyoung’s still grinning and it’s a weird bright contrast to the grim situation they’re in right now but Jihoon finds that he doesn’t mind that at all.

“You’re not the only one who wants this to work. Divorcee at twenty-eight… Let’s not embarrass ourselves,” Jihoon mumbles off and before he can add anything else Soonyoung is grabbing his face between two hands and kissing him hard. They almost don’t break away and keep kissing, faces smashed together like they’re lives are on the line and in many ways they really are, but Soonyoung pulls away when there’s a loud crash outside and leans back in for one last kiss before separating for good.

“I love you, yeah?” He tells him and Jihoon nods not meeting his eyes. He still can’t believe how strongly all his feelings came back when two days ago he was asking his lawyer to send him documents for a divorce. Soonyoung doesn’t wait for him to reply before he twists around in the small space, and opens the door slightly to apprehend their surroundings.

“There’s an IKEA nearby, you saw it too right? We can hide there,” Jihoon suggests, one of his hands ready on his gun.

“Sounds good,” Soonyoung says quietly. “Okay it’s clear for now, I’ll go first,” he turns around and gives Jihoon a bright smile and a thumbs up.

“Don’t die, dumbass,” Jihoon tells him and Soonyoung frowns.

“Did nobody ever tell you that’s bad luck?” Before Jihoon can reply Soonyoung is kicking the duffel bag at his feet out the door and grabbing it as he runs, leaving Jihoon to watch him scurry masterfully down the lawn. They’re lucky it’s dark and everyone’s preoccupied looking for them at the motel, even the helicopter is on the other side of the building and Jihoon decides not to risk waiting and sprints right after.

Naturally, at this hour the store is closed but Soonyoung is already working on the keypad of the back entrance when Jihoon runs up to him. Within a few seconds the keypad blinks green and the door unlock.

“Took two semesters of computer science back in university,” Soonyoung explains as he pushes open the door. “Shitty professor but the stuff is useful.” Jihoon doesn’t say anything but he’s impressed.

Soonyoung goes in first, gun ready in case the agents are already waiting inside. It seems empty and as they walk through the kitchen furniture, Jihoon notices IKEA leaves out their knives, he makes sure to remember that. Just in case. When the place seems clear Soonyoung ducks behind one of the kitchen counters and opens the bag he was carrying. He takes out one of the bulletproof vests and throws to Jihoon, while he puts another one on himself.

“Tighten it up for me?” He asks and Jihoon crawls over to help him and Soonyoung does the same for him after. “When we get a new place we should redecorate,” Soonyoung suggest looking around. “They have some nice stuff here.”

“Let’s live through this mess first, alright?” Jihoon suggests instead, but chuckles regardless. When they’re both wearing their high-tech vests, they arm themselves with whatever guns Soonyoung has stored in the bag and while Jihoon arms his handgun there's commotion from the opposite side of the store and they both look at each other realizing the agents had found them.

"This is it, huh?" Soonyoung is grinning and his eyes are sharp fire and Jihoon thinks if this is how he looks at all his victims he wouldn't mind being one of them. "Kiss good luck?" He offers, likely sensing the way Jihoon is looking at him.

Jihoon leans forward and gives him one strong kiss just for that.

"See you in the next life, Soonyoung," he says, smile rueful and Soonyoung mimics it.

"Likewise, Jihoonie."

They split across the floor to guard the perimeter until the agents reach them and it only takes a few minutes for the first few men walk between the sofas for Soonyoung to take them out before Jihoon can. Jihoon looks over at his husband, where he's hiding at the entrance to the kitchen section and Soonyoung shoots him a grin behind a countertop and Jihoon tries not to roll his eyes at Soonyoung still behaving like all of this is a joke, and focuses back on the entrance.

It's quiet for a few seconds before more agents come running and the whole floor turns into a shooting arena. Because Jihoon and Soonyoung's positions are well hidden they manage to get out of the confrontation unscathed and as soon as it's quiet again Jihoon sprints back to Soonyoung.

"How many people do you think they sent?" He mutters to him as they exchange bullets to refill their guns. Neither of them mention how their resources are running low. “Which company, too? At this point I feel like both our companies have joined forces just to kill us.”

"Maybe," Soonyoung is looking over the countertop every few seconds to make sure the coast is clear. "But I'm kind of flattered by the amount, to be honest," he snickers and Jihoon is a little impressed with how light Soonyoung can remain despite their lives on the line.

There's commotion again and more agents storm the floor and Jihoon can't help but lean his head back on the counter and let out a frustrating sigh. He’s so fucking tired. They exchange looks again and Jihoon spots the knife cart from earlier behind Soonyoung. Perfect. He can use those to save some bullets for the meanwhile.

Jihoon gestures for them to split and runs past him and is glad Soonyoung gets the message when he goes the other way. Jihoon grabs the cart and rolls it forward noticing that the number of incoming footsteps has definitely increased. They really did send a huge amount of agents after them, jeez, is two employees getting married really that scary.

He hears gunshots and realizes Soonyoung has probably come across a few shooters already and when he catches hint of noise Jihoon behind him he throws a knife over his shoulder without looking to get an agent who tried to discretely sneak up. When he hears a thud, he knows he’s got him and continues to round the corner where he finds agents surrounding Soonyoung and quickly throws knives to help him, aiming perfectly that he takes out one agent with each of his throw. Even Soonyoung glances at him in surprise. The distraction isn't so good though when Jihoon notices too late that one of the agents is about to shoot Soonyoung almost right into his temple. Soonyoung is professional enough to notice him too, shooting him quickly first but the knife Jihoon was throwing had already slipped out of his hand and because of Soonyoung’s sharp movement, it settles deep in his thigh instead of getting the agent.

When he looks over at Soonyoung, he’s glaring and Jihoon shrugs apologetically. At least it wasn't a huge steak knife. Soonyoung's fury, however, turns him into a hurricane and Jihoon can only watch in awe as Soonyoung takes care of the other ten agents surrounding him in a matter of minutes.

As soon as they're all out he looks at Jihoon again. "Ow!!" He says pointedly and pulls out the knife with a wince.  

"I said sorry!" Jihoon shoots back.

"No you didn’t!"

"Well sorry, jeez, it's a fight!"

"Exactly, so why are you standing there!"

An agent tries to raise his gun to shoot at Soonyoung and Jihoon throws his last knife at him. "Pay attention," Jihoon replies instead and Soonyoung narrows his eyes before he leans down to scavenge for weapons from the agents passed out on the floor. Jihoon doesn't say anything when he approaches but he notices the expert way Soonyoung made sure he didn't cause any fatal wounds. He really is too soft of a guy in this line of business and bends to help Soonyoung collect bullet refills.

There's more noise not too far away and they quickly make their way down the hall to the grocery section and Soonyoung trips over his wounded leg and knocks over a bunch of coke cans that trickle loudly down onto the floor.

"Fuck's sake, Soonyoung," Jihoon hisses at him.

"Maybe if someone didn't stab me!" Soonyoung defends, rubbing his leg and Jihoon can't really say anything to that and he doesn't really have to because they start getting shot at and sprint fast down the drinks aisle and weird Swedish snacks to reach an elevator on the other side.

Jihoon gets in first and starts closing the door while Soonyoung slips inside last second.

"You don't often work with partners do you?" Soonyoung rips off some of his shirt to wrap it around his thigh.

"Only once," Jihoon says cringing at the weird elevator music. "But the guy wrote a less than kind report on me and I never got paired again."

Soonyoung looks up at him as he tightens the knot. "What did you to him?"

"Handcuffed him in our hotel room so he wouldn't disturb my mission," Jihoon says simply. He was a dumb agent anyway. Seokmin was always too kind to be an assassin and it showed from the soft way he held a gun to the kind ‘sorry’s' he told to the people he shot. Jihoon had no time to deal with that.

"You're ridiculous," Soonyoung straightens back out shaking out his body and rolling his head as if stretching before a marathon.

"Sorry about the leg by the-"

"Don't mention it," Soonyoung cuts him off harshly but when Jihoon looks over at him, Soonyoung's gaze isn't angry.

Before the elevator doors open, Jihoon offers a plan, "I'll fly and you're bait?"

Soonyoung cocks his gun, eyes sharp and ready. "Deal."

As soon as the doors open there is shooting and a lot of it. Jihoon scrambles to the closets and climbs a wardrobe to get on higher ground. There's shooting from at least three sides and Jihoon can't believe the sheer capacity of this mission just to get two guys and how Soonyoung shoots back with endless energy remaining miraculously unharmed. Jihoon takes out two of the three shooters and Soonyoung takes out the third but there are more coming in from all sides and Jihoon thinks it doesn't matter which one of them is flying and which one of them is bait when all of their sides are being attacked from and he runs down to join Soonyoung.

"Soonyoung we have to get out of here!" Jihoon yells over the bullet sounds and Soonyoung almost growls in refusal as he pulls the machine gun he took from one of the agents he shot earlier, pulls it over his shoulder and starts shooting aggressively almost in a circle. Jihoon busies both hands with guns too and starts shooting almost recklessly as well just to make sure all their sides are clear but when his stomachs flares with pain he realizes his vest had rolled up and he bends over with a loud groan, falling onto his knee, hand pressed against his bleeding side.

It takes Soonyoung a few seconds to realize Jihoon had fallen next to him and he looks at him in horror.

"Jihoon, fuck, fuck, fuck," he mutters in panic, pulling Jihoon up and grabbing him tight as they run quickly behind some closet spaces and find a fake IKEA bedroom they can hide in and the shooting pauses with them out of sight.

Jihoon falls onto the bed and groans into the pillow and he can feel his hand wet with blood from his wound and he can’t believe how reckless he could be to get fucking shot. "Please tell me there's a hole in the back," Jihoon grits out, already covered in cold sweat from the rapid blood loss. Fuck, he hates getting shot. Last time it happened was before he even met Soonyoung. Jihoon was still a rookie so he didn’t prepare properly and the victim shot him in the leg before Jihoon could take him out. Hurt like a bitch so he vowed to never get shot again and yet here he is.

"Yeah, yeah there is," Soonyoung says softly fingers pressing carefully around the gun wound as if not knowing what to do. They’re assassins, huge confrontations like this are rare in their line of business. Luckily they don’t get shot very often so when they do… Jihoon knows Soonyoung is panicking.

"First time seeing so much blood?" Jihoon snickers but the shit hurts so it comes out more as a wheeze.

"What do you take me for? Of course not," Soonyoung mutters and Jihoon hears ripping fabric. "It's different when it's you, though," Jihoon's face is still pressed against the pillow when he feels something press against his back, probably Soonyoung trying to stop the blood with the sheets or his shirt and it burns so Jihoon pulls his hand away and slowly sits up. When he looks at Soonyoung he notices his entire front is littered in gunshots but luckily all of them got the bulletproof vest, not that it didn’t hurt either. Just less. Much less. Jihoon closes his eyes and lets out a sigh laced with a loud groan.  

There's a shot through the door and Soonyoung quickly pulls them down to the floor and Jihoon gasps from the sudden movement, leaning into Soonyoung's burning neck.

"Shh," Soonyoung tries. "Just a bit more." Jihoon doesn't reply but closes his eyes for a minute. There's at least another dozen agents out on the floor.  _A bit more_ , Jihoon thinks… How did he end up marrying such a softy.

“If you need,” he says weakly. “Leave me behind, okay?”

“What the hell,” Soonyoung tries to push him away to look at him but Jihoon falls back onto his chest so Soonyoung has to grasp him tight so he won’t topple over entirely. “That’s not even an option, you hear me?!” Jihoon doesn’t reply and Soonyoung shakes him. “Open your eyes, Jihoon,” he almost growls. “I’m not fucking messing around, open your  _fucking_ eyes,” he shakes him and Jihoon’s eyes flutter open as he takes a deep breath to try and straighten out. “We don’t give up, right? That’s what we talked about!” Jihoon looks up at him and Soonyoung’s eyes are shining, not with anger, not with disappointment… Jihoon thinks it’s tears and the energy that floods him has him sitting straighter. He’s not about to whine about a gunshot wound if it means Soonyoung getting distracted and crying over something silly like this.

Jihoon nods, pressing his hand against his injury and he should really stop doing that because his hands are way too filthy to be touching a flesh wound but he needs to halt the bleeding somehow.

“I’m good,” he says and he knows he sounds weak but he has to convince himself somehow. “One last push,” he adds and listens to the footsteps outside their hideaway and through the flaring pain at his waist, for the first time in his ten years as an agent, he feels scared.

 

✗

 

The moment Soonyoung realized Jihoon was shot he felt the world stop and if he could, he would grab Jihoon and run out of there and not care if they're cowards for escaping out of the fight like that as long as Jihoon stays alive...

Jihoon's still breathing now. Earlier, his hot breath was short and wet on his neck and he almost didn’t get up but he’s sitting up again, hand red on his waist and the battle fire shine back in his eyes. Soonyoung looks down at where Jihoon’s fingers are covered in blood as they press against the injury, and although he’s sure they're both aware of it, neither of them mention that any wound to the torso is dangerous in case it damaged any organs. He hates that they can’t just run away, he really does, but at this point there really is no choice.

"One last push," Jihoon says watching the door, his forehead shining with sweat and face pale from the loss of blood and Soonyoung almost wants to take back what he said earlier and tell him to stay behind while he takes care of the rest but he knows Jihoon will just turn reckless from that undermining.

Soonyoung gets up making sure Jihoon can sit straight by himself, and looks carefully through the hole in the door. He spots at least three agents in that vicinity alone and there's probably at least another five in the area.

"How does it look?" Jihoon says with a groan.

"Piece of cake," Soonyoung mutters ducking down checking how many bullets he has left in his gun.

"Your best is on the left," Jihoon says as he checks his own weapon. "I'll take the right."

"That Jeju vacation sounds really good about now, doesn't it?" Soonyoung mutters with a small smile when he realizes he has only about twenty bullets left.

"It rains a lot this time of year," Jihoon mutters offhandedly, locking his gun back in place and then looks up meeting Soonyoung's worried gaze. "Don't look at me like that," he says swallowing down his pain and crawling towards him to look through the bullet hole himself and lean back down before they head out for the last time. "There's nowhere I'd rather be than right here with you," he says looking at Soonyoung and Soonyoung lets out a small sigh before his face splits into a soft smile and he feels one hot tear trickle down his cheek. "Shut up," Jihoon warns him harshly, but he wipes the tears off anyway with a blood-stained finger, and gets up with a grunt to kick the door open for the last act.

It happens in slow motion, back to back, the gun shots whizzing past them. They move counterclockwise and watch agents fall before they can reach them and Soonyoung thinks through all this blood and death that maybe there's a reason their agencies fear them so much.

Soonyoung runs out of bullets first and takes out a bomb from his belt and throws it to where he saw two agents fighting turning around to throw himself onto Jihoon and down on the floor when the bomb explodes behind them.

"Fuck," Jihoon groans below him.

"Sorry," Soonyoung mutters getting up and pulling Jihoon with him. "Cover me, there are only a few left."

"That didn't go so well last time."

"Well, trust me, okay?" Before Jihoon can reply Soonyoung is running down the mattress section watching the agent ahead of him fall from Jihoon's shot as he approaches the last man. He almost pauses, recognizing him, but continues running while the agent watches him back in shock. The agent is a fucking rookie and Soonyoung reaches him way too easily and knees him in the crotch watching the boy fall onto the floor. Swiftly, Soonyoung snatches the gun away from him and twists the agent’s arm around tightly almost in self-chokehold and aims his gun at the boy’s head.

"We meet again, Chan," Soonyoung smirks as Jihoon leans down on a mattress a bit ahead, hand back at his waist and Soonyoung tries not to distract himself how Jihoon’s fingers are bright red with fresh blood. Soonyoung really needs to finish this soon.

Chan pulls against his arm but can't let go and freezes when he hears Soonyoung cock the gun and press it hard against his skull.

“I was thinking,” Soonyoung says, finally. “It’s weird for our companies to send just one employee as bait when they clearly hate sharing agents so much. Who do you really work for?”

Jihoon is still on the lookout. “Soonyoung let’s get out while we can,” he says weakly and Soonyoung wants more than anything to just run but if they don’t end this the right way he knows they’ll just keep running forever.

“Personally, I think you work for both companies,” Soonyoung ignores Jihoon for the meanwhile focusing on Chan and sees Jihoon’s face twist in understanding. “What makes you the exception, dear Chan?”

The boy tries to pull away again. He’s a feisty one, Soonyoung thinks, probably someone with crazy connections high up.

“A new agent lackey getting a high profile mission with high security to get in between a married couple who are too distracted with each other to kill you,” Jihoon says between heavy breaths and Soonyoung pushes the gun against his skull to get Chan to talk.

“There are agents watching right now but they don’t budge because I have a gun to your head,” Soonyoung leans down, close to Chan’s ear. “Who are you Channie?” He asks, eyes watching the agents stationed around them. “Why are you so special?”

Jihoon is done pretending to be fine at this point and lays back onto the mattress as if there aren’t people with guns pointing at them. Soonyoung tries his best not to budge towards him to see if he’s okay. He needs to finish this first, he repeats in his head like a mantra, and he needs to do it fast.

“My first thought when I found out Jihoon is also part of an assassin agency that is based in New York, was that it’s too conflicting to have them both here, isn’t it? Unless there’s something keeping them here together. Something like a child.”

Chan’s head hangs. “You don’t know shit.”

“I know plenty of shit,” Soonyoung pushes the kid again, making his arm choke him slightly. “I also know Jihoon’s company is run by a woman and mine by a man and it would be a shame if someone were to find out that they have a son together or both of companies would be in jeopardy.”

Jihoon rolls his head to look at them, eyes glassy. “They don’t know you’re here do you?”

“My uncle set me up.”

“Dumb uncle,” Jihoon mutters eyes closing.

“Jihoon, keep your goddamn eyes open!” Soonyoung yells at him, his hold on Chan’s arm tightening. “Fuck,” he mutters when Jihoon doesn’t reply. “Contact your parents right now, I don’t care which one or I blow your brains out I swear to fucking god I will!” Soonyoung knows he sounds too unprofessionally chaotic, but Jihoon isn’t responding anymore and he really has no time to waste.

“Ow, fuck okay! Hansol, call my dad!” Soonyoung spots one of the agents taking out their phone and dialing. “Bring the phone here!” Chan yells and Hansol comes near and hands Soonyoung the phone.

“Are you a dumbass?” Soonyoung looks at him incredulously. As if he’s going to let go of Chan until all of this is over. “Put it on speaker.” Hansol does with trembling hands and the phone call is answered in two rings.

“Chan,” Soonyoung recognizes the voice immediately, though this tone is much softer than he’s used to hearing. “What did I tell you about your curfew?”

“Hello boss,” he speaks instead and there’s a pause.

“Soonyoung Kwon, you’re alive,” he says, voice masterfully flat, void of emotion, the softness from a moment ago completely gone. “I see you’ve met Chan.”

“It's Soonyoung Lee and yes, we’re quite friendly,” Soonyoung says watching Jihoon on the mattress nearby. His chest rises in short breaths so Soonyoung has time but not much. “I have a gun pressed to your son’s brain as we speak,” he cuts to the chase and hears his boss’ voice hitch over the speaker. “I’m sure you’ve heard from your brother your son has been a naughty,  _naughty_  boy, but putting a good employee’s life on the line over a marriage is a little ridiculous don’t you think?”

“As long as my family’s safe nothing is ridiculous,” his boss says.

“I feel the same way,” Soonyoung says, eyes still on Jihoon. “That’s why I want you to send me an ambulance to save my husband’s life and I’ll let Chan go.”

“That’s all?” His boss says almost surprised.

“What more do you need, boss? Have I not done enough all these years, completing all your missions without questions no matter how ridiculous the targets are, yet you come after  _my_ family regardless?” Soonyoung is spitting out his words in anger and he can’t look away from Jihoon, terrified that if he does, his chest will stop rising. “Oh and another thing, I quit. Tell your wife Jihoon quits, too and  _never_ contact us and if you do…” He pauses squeezing Chan’s wrist tight enough that the boy makes a noise of pain. “Let’s just say we’ve always been good at our jobs and we’re  _very_ familiar with dear Channie, here.”

“You really were a good agent, Soonyoung,” his boss says, finally. “There’s an ambulance on the way, already. Let Chan go and all the agents will retreat. That’s a promise.”

“As if any promise of yours can be trusted,” Soonyoung wants to believe him but this all almost seems too easy. Still, Soonyoung thinks, if this simplicity means he and Jihoon can spend the rest of their life together and free, he doesn’t mind.  

“I always respected you,” his boss says. “Hansol, is Seungkwan there?”

“Yes, sir!” Hansol replies quickly.

“Tell him to give Soonyoung’s husband first aid.” Seungkwan must’ve been nearby because Soonyoung sees an agent make his way towards Jihoon. He has a bag over his shoulder and when he drops it on the mattress he takes out gauzes and other quick fixes for Jihoon’s wound.

“This is too easy,” Soonyoung says almost baffled.

“You made me rethink things, Soonyoung,” his boss says. “I also had a long talk with Jun. You have a good partner.”

“Had,” Soonyoung tells him. “I only have one partner now,” he says watching Jihoon mumble something to Seungkwan’s questions. “Goodbye, boss,” he says letting go of Chan and hurrying to Jihoon’s side.

“I need to go,” Seungkwan says and Soonyoung can’t help but notice that both he and Hansol are very young. Probably Chan’s own age. He doesn’t know why it shocks him so much considering he himself got into this business at nineteen but it still upsets him strangely. “Hold the gauze here until the ambulance gets here,” he tells Soonyoung and Soonyoung nods, pressing it down on the wound while Seungkwan packs his things. “He’s going to be fine, the shot was clear. You’re lucky.” With that he leaves and it’s just him and Jihoon now and it’s eerily silent save for Jihoon’s short breaths escaping his dry lips.

“What happened?” Jihoon mutters weakly and Soonyoung leans over him watching drops fall onto Jihoon’s chin. He didn’t even realize he started crying again.

“Nothing, you’re fine,” Soonyoung whispers leaning down to press their foreheads together. “We’re fine.”

“God, are you crying?” Jihoon chuckles weakly and Soonyoung feels Jihoon’s weak fingers sink into the short hair at his nape.

“Happy tears,” Soonyoung says, wetting his lips and leaning away so he can look at Jihoon properly. “As soon as you’re back in shape we’re going to Jeju. I don’t care how much it’s raining there. I like the rain. So you better recover quickly, you hear me?”  

Jihoon grins weakly, eyes fluttering open and closed again. “You sentimental fuck,” Jihoon laughs, referring to the rain. “What are we celebrating? Our five-year anniversary?” Jihoon teases and Soonyoung laughs wetly.

“It’s six years, you dumbass.”

 

✗✗✗

 

Jihoon finds the aftermath of the whole situation rather anticlimactic considering how close to death he and Soonyoung had gotten. Jihoon’s bullet wound really wasn’t too severe and he’s released quickly from hospital and even has all his medical bills paid by his company as an apology of sorts. His boss even sends him a letter with a check to five million dollars as a farewell gift, but Jihoon assumes it’s another way of asking him to keep quiet about her son.

They buy an apartment in Seoul and move there because staying in New York is too strange for them and they both want to start anew. It doesn’t hurt that Soonyoung’s family lives there and they have always been pleasant people to spend time with. Plus, his sister can be the one to do the curtains this time. Thank god.

Jihoon keeps producing music using the huge pop culture in South Korea for his job’s benefit and Soonyoung gets back into dancing because he used to quite enjoy it in college. They even adopt a cat once they’re there. Jihoon has always wanted one and they hope that this joint responsibility will help them maintain a more harmonious relationship, or whatever their therapists likes to bullshit over Skype.

Still, their life becomes a quieter one and without all the lies and the secrecy the initial feelings of loving each other unconditionally remain strong and Jihoon almost can’t believe how easy their relationship is when they’re honest with each other. Sure, they still bicker a lot but there’s a heavy mutual respect and love underneath it all that it doesn’t bother either of them at all. They’re happy. They’re _so_ happy that Jihoon can’t stop thinking about how grateful he is for every risk they took to get here. He knows Soonyoung feels the same with the way he kisses the scar of his bullet wound on his waist every morning they wake up and every night before they fall asleep, fingers wrapped around each other.

They do still Skype their marriage counselor in online sessions every two months. Last time he told them to get a cat, and now they’re just checking up again. It’s not because there’s something wrong with their relationship but because there used to be and it’s better to be safe than sorry. Jihoon doesn’t want to lose this happiness again, he doesn’t think he’ll be able to handle that.

“I’m curious about the progress you made,” the counselor asks. It’s been four months since they quit their jobs and moved to South Korea.

The two exchange happy looks and Jihoon’s eyes glance down to where their fingers are entwined off camera.

“There may have been times,” Soonyoung starts not taking his eyes off Jihoon, “where I wanted to kill him but I couldn’t…”

“Take the shot?” Jihoon suggests, grinning.

“Sometimes you have to battle through it,” their therapist says and Jihoon looks over at the grainy video of him on their laptop.

“That’s marriage, right?”

The therapist nods. “I think you two are on the right path,” he says and Jihoon feels lighter even though he hates the guy, he is a professional surely he knows what he’s talking about.

“So far,” Soonyoung says and Jihoon looks at him with a surprised smile.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I want to keep it suspenseful! The audience hates happy endings,” Soonyoung defends and Jihoon looks away shaking his head but he can’t stop smiling. He hasn’t stopped smiling at all since he left his past life behind.

“So far… Fuck’s sake Soonyoung,” Jihoon mutters and Soonyoung squeezes his hand playfully.

“Ask us the sex question!” Soonyoung tells the therapist impatiently and Soonyoung shoots him a glare.  

“Um…” The therapist starts but Soonyoung is already letting go of Jihoon’s hand to show him a big ten with his fingers sprawled and it’s all silly and a little embarrassing but it’s not a lie either and Jihoon shakes his head again and smiles hoping with his whole heart that this happiness lasts forever.  

  
✗o✗o

**Author's Note:**

> first of all.. thank you so much for reading this monster. im sorry if it's too close to the movie but i couldn't help myself it fit so well and i only have three braincells to come up w anything too original but full credit to hollywood and whoever created this masterpiece THANK YOU .
> 
> also many thanks to light who survived this ficfest with me and to the admins of the big screen too! thanks to soba and nat who read through this mess as well im really thankful for everyone's help;;; 
> 
> everyone's always welcome to comment or hmu on my [cc](https://curiouscat.me/hozi) or [twit](https://twitter.com/iiovewz) !!! id love to hear people's fav parts or maybe what u didn't like too whatever ur heart desires any thoughts are always welcome!!! also planning on writing a nsfw sidechap bc i didnt wanna add it here but we'll see how that goes.. love u all seriously if u got to here it means the world to me I LOVE YOU ♡♡♡


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